The Freedom of Being A Pirate
by Rirry-chan88
Summary: Join Satomi as she gathers a crew of different strengths and travels to accomplish something all the members want: True Freedom. Their journey will take a lot of work, but they're determined to succeed, and with a stubborn captain like Satomi, how could they fail? Warning: OC crew, moderate cussing, violence
1. Tobi the Traitor?

Author's Note: Hellooooo people I don't know! Okay, so this is my first story, and any advice would be greatly accepted. If any of you have any problems, then good for you. That's your own personal problem and I'm not gonna bother trying to fix them. I already have a vague idea of where this story is gonna go, but if anyone has any suggestions, I will quite gladly take them into consideration. It would be much appreciated if people would perhaps send in OC's, especially for Marines, other pirate crews, innocent civilians, and even maybe some Revolutionaries. I might be willing to take OC's for my main prate crew, but only if I really like the character you submit. Keep in mind I might change something up, but I'll tell you to get approval before I do something like that, not to mention give you guys all the credit. Also, I happen to be terrible with names, so suggestions for lots of names, weird or normal, would be greatly appreciated. Reviews, obviously, would just make me uber happy like you wouldn't believe. By the way, this story does in fact take place around the same time as the Strawhats, its like five months before the start of the story, and also taking place in the South Blue. And if anyone maybe wants to be a beta or something for me, I would also very much like that, but you'd have to explain to me how that works, 'cause I certainly don't know how that works. Also, I can't give you an exact idea as to how often I'll update, but I know I'm gonna update at the very least once a month (I'm shooting for two week updates though). There isn't much action in this chapter, but I'm trying to make up for that by making it at least somewhat funny. I think that's all I really wanted to say. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy, and please leave reviews telling me what you guys think, just so I know if there's a certain area I need to improve on. My author's note also won't usually be this long, this is just what I figured to be some basic, important information, and I realize most of you guy's wont actually read it. By the way, anywhere in this story that it says Satomi might haviolet eyes, ignore that. Her eyes are brown. I'll find time to fix that later.

P.S. I don't own anything to do with One Piece, just my own personal OCs

* * *

The day had been overly bright, and sailing had been smooth. Despite the calm atmosphere Satomi could feel nothing but excitement at the notion of reaching shore. Then again, they had been running low on supplies, and she was starving. Of course, Jack was hungry too, but he didn't have the stomach of a D. When Jack had pointed at the island in the distance, Satomi had almost pounced on him with glee; however, not being a very touchy feely person, she had restrained herself. They had been in the middle of tying the ship to the dock when the dock master had appeared to demand a payment. An unnecessarily high payment at that.

"If you want to dock here, I'll need you to pay 10,000 Beli, unless you want me to call the marines on you," the short, squat man had declared, a smile on his face that had made Satomi wonder if perhaps the man was actually hoping they wouldn't be able to afford. His excited look seemed to lessen when he noticed Jack's scythe, which he had leaning against his body in a casual manner.

"That's a little pricy, don't you think?" Jack had asked, expecting his captain to react violently at this, and making the man anxious as he began to roll the scythe threateningly between his fingers. She hadn't seemed like the kind of woman who enjoyed wasting money, and he knew from experience just how short tempered she could be. He was surprised, however, when she had smiled and ran into the cabin of their little boat, only to come out seconds later with the necessary money. She had smiled as she gave the ugly little man his money, acting as polite as a princess would to a foreign diplomat that she wanted to stay on good terms with. Her demeanor had change the instant the man had turned to walk off with his money. Her face transformed into a scowl, making her look older than she actually was, and she tightened her low ponytail as she sighed, adjusting the grey fedora resting on her head.

"I hate having to be polite to greedy people like him," she scowled even deeper, before hopping out of the boat.

"Then why did you act like a perfect little princess towards him?" Jack questioned, his grey eyes searching for an answer from her face as he hopped out of the boat as well. Satomi's eyes widened at the word 'princess' but she otherwise didn't give away an answer with her appearance. She did, however, respond verbally.

"With only a two man crew, it would be logical to only stir up trouble with the marines if we accidentally bump into one. Angering the man and raising cain with him over money when I have plenty of the stuff would be pointless. Besides, I'm hungry," with her final comment she smiled at him, and began to walk a little faster, causing Jack to chuckle and move to catch up. Being 5'11, Satomi was a pretty fast walker. "You got the list of supplies, Doc?"

"Of course," he responded, grinning at the use of her nickname for him. "We need lots of water and food, a new ship, couple of crewmates, and possibly a new Captain," he smirked when his silver haired companion rammed her right elbow lightly into his gut, not intending to hurt him but still hard enough to get the point across that the joke was annoying.

"You shouldn't joke like that. You sound like my dad commenting on how he needs a new daughter," she said, smirking up at him. "He's also old. What does that say about you?"

"That I'm wise," the doctor remarked confidently and performing a dramatic gesture, making his captain laugh lightly as they reached a trail that they supposed would lead to a town, which probably had a Marine Base as well. "Say, did you do anything with the dogs before we left, because I don't want any of them messing with my stuff?"

"It's good to know you're confident 'bout yourself. Anyway yeah, I put Baby Jake in the kennel. He's the only one that could do any damage to your stuff. Although I think Shannon could be sleeping on your bed, but you'll have to get over that," his captain informed him, grinning at the thought of her precious pooches. Satomi had three dogs, Harvey, Baby Jake, and Shannon, and she loved them all as if they were her very children. Of course, according to her, her dogs had always been with her on her travels on the sea, and she considered them the three most loyal creatures in existence. The only ones she could ever be sure would never betray her. When she said this, Jack made sure he didn't look hurt at the thought of her considering him to be one of those bastards that would betray her, because while he had only known her for about two weeks, he would already die for her. She was his captain, after all, and she had showed him that that was what Nakama do.

"'Course I am. Someone in this crew needs to have some self-confidence," Jack stated, referring to Satomi's slightly pessimistic viewpoints and lack of confidence, "But, uh, how did you grab the money so fast? Wasn't all the money in that box under you bed?"

"Oh, I keep my counterfeit money in a drawer in the desk in the kitchen area. That's what I use to pay greedy jerk faces like that ugly frog back there, and the stuff is so good, it takes a friggin' genius to tell the difference between that fake stuff of mine and the real stuff," Satomi told him, grinning happily as his jaw gapped down at her.

"Since when do you have counterfeit money?" Jack questioned, shocked. He really hadn't expected her to have fake money, or the ability to talk about it so casually.

"Well, I have these really good friends named Amelia, Cordelia, and Ophelia. Anyways, they were all addicted to something. Cordelia was addicted, to, uh, sex, Ophelia was an alcoholic, and not in the fun partying pirate sense, and Amelia was a drug addict. Amelia made counterfeit money to by her drugs, so when I finally got them all to stop, Amelia gave me all the fake money, Ophelia gave me all her alcohol, and Cordelia gave me, uh, well we won't go in depth with what she gave me. Let's just say I had another friend of mine burn that stuff. Mr. Edwards, that dude that convinced me to be a pirate, drank all the alcohol, being the crazy old man he is, and I'm still putting the fake money to use," Satomi said, making an awkward face every time she mentioned this Cordelia person. Jack could only stare at her, and she felt kind of amused that he hadn't reacted yet.

"You know some strange people," Jack finally said, and Satomi could only laugh at this.

"That is the understatement of the year! I'm pretty confident the only normal person I know is your aunt. The very notion of me associating with the average person is laughable. It just doesn't happen. Whenever I even think I've met a normal person, it turns out they're weirdoes or sociopaths and some of them even make attempts on my life. I honestly don't think I can handle normal people at this point in my life. They'd be too boring," Satomi glanced up at him, a small, almost sad smile on her face. Jack had seen the expression on occasion, but only when he was sure she thought he wasn't watching, and it actually concerned him. She had mentioned on occasion how she had had phases of what she called 'annoying, unhealthy and frightening' depressions once or twice, and while they were rare, they were generally caused by very appropriate reasons. She hadn't elaborated on them, but Jack found it hard to imagine this stubborn, short tempered, sarcastic, and somewhat violent young woman to ever be sad. The way she acted and spoke made it seem like she could have a normal conversation with anyone, even Whitebeard, the strongest man in the world, or Sengoku, the Fleet-Admiral of the marines, and then wave the conversation off as boring and totally not intimidating in the least. She didn't even seem slightly saddened by the thought of her mother's death. In fact, to Jack, Satomi only had three emotions: angry, happy, and neutral.

"Hate to break it to ya, Cap'n, but my aunt ain't the most normal of people either. So I suppose you don't know any normal people," Jack said, grinning down at her. Satomi laughed, and then pointed ahead of them, towards the fast approaching town.

"Food. We will soon have food," she said, and then her stomach growled.

"Sounds like you're hungry," Jack said, a smirk upon his face. Satomi rolled her eyes.

"'Course I'm hungry. We ran out of supplies three days ago," there was a frown on her face.

"And whose fault was that?" Jack questioned, a taunting tone to his voice.

"Hey, don't blame me if the only ocean I'm capable of navigating is the Grand Line! Compasses are stupid anyway; all they do is point north. If you need to be able to find north, you should just use the sun and use that to find the other directions. The Log Poses used in the Grand Line actually point to the next island you're going, which is way easier. 'Sides, I ain't a navigator, and I didn't know we would get lost when I was buying food," Satomi snapped, and Jack understood this logic. After they had ran out of food, they had had this conversation a number of times. Satomi was good at getting her point across. Of course, there was no way Satomi was gonna let all the blame rest on her shoulders. At least they had plenty of water. She really needed to find a navigator.

"Guess I can't argue with that logic," Jack replied calmly, feeling pretty hungry as well and looking forward to a good meal.

"'Course you can't. It's my logic, after all," Satomi stated, a proud grin on her face.

* * *

Once they had properly entered the little town, they began their hunt for a restaurant or bar, per Satomi's orders. They managed to find a quaint looking little hole in the wall called 'Ricky's' that had a sign when you entered saying, 'Please seat yourself'. Satomi demanded they sit in a booth, and since Jack didn't really care, they made their way to a little corner booth to take their seats, Jack leaning his scythe against the table, and they waited for a server to come and take their orders. Once they had sat down, Satomi had found something that made her greatly happy.

"Look," she said happily, "A newspaper. This is perfect. That stupid News coo hasn't been delivering on time, so I'm not quite caught up on the World's cruel and evil activities."

"But you're a pirate, Cap'n. What does news matter to you?" Jack asked, and Satomi made an expression as if she were shocked. She then took a deep breath, alerting Jack that this could possibly be a long explanation.

"Ignorance may be bliss, Doc, but knowledge is power. Knowing the world's most recent activities could warn us of places to steer clear of, people to avoid, and other such important information. It's also pertinent because it lets us know what lies the Government could be telling the people about us specifically. Trust me, they lie about these things, and they are good at blowing things out of proportion. Any bit of information we can gather is important, and while it's true that the World Government puts lies in the papers, there is some truth, and reading lies isn't what hurts people. Its believing them that's bothersome," there was a knowing smile on Satomi's face, and Jack was sure she would have said more if she wasn't interrupted by a voice that, while unfamiliar to Satomi, was like experiencing a happy childhood memory all over again to Jack.

"Well well well, if it isn't Bad Luck Jack," the smirk on the man's face was almost audible, and Jack scowled at the use of his old nickname. Satomi turned around to see where the voice had come from, to see a very surprising sight.

It was a young man, probably Jack's age, wearing a marine cap that, instead of saying 'Marine' on it, only had the Marine's insignia but still told Satomi he was indeed a Marine. He was in civilian clothing, so Satomi assumed he was either off duty, or at least of the rank Petty Officer or higher. He was wearing a dark blue muscle shirt with black cargo pants. He had on a pair of black combat boots, and he had a very muscular build, which alerted the silver haired girl to his physical strength.

"Tobi?" Jack questioned the shock evident on his face. Satomi glanced back to her scythe wielding companion, and realized that he must know the man. The _Marine _man. Satomi looked back at the man, taking in the rest of his appearance, wondering if she should consider the man an enemy, ally, or nobody.

"In the flesh," the man, Satomi assumed his name was Tobi, flashed a brilliant smile at Jack, then towards her. "And who might you be?"

"I've heard its rude to ask someone's name without introducing one's own self first," the words had left her mouth before she could stop them, a habit she had been trying to beat down since she was thirteen. She didn't let her embarrassment show on her expression, only trying to look nicer than her rude tone had implied. She hated how the manners she had been taught as a child seemed to show through at the most random of times. On the bright side, it made her look like less of a pirate, and that might've been a good thing if this guy was, in fact, going to be an enemy.

"Sorry 'bout that. I'm Tobi," the man gave an embarrassed smile and stuck out his hand, which Satomi graciously took.

"No worries, I'm Satomi. Are you perhaps a Marine, Mr. Tobi?" she had to know for sure, and she needed to know if she could trust this man. She glanced back at Jack, whose side of the booth was up against the wall and facing the door of the restaurant. He met her eyes and gave a slight, unnoticeable nod, telling her that his friend wasn't just a Marine; he was a trustable Marine.

"I am actually. Guess my hat gave me away. I'm a Warrant Officer, and no need for the formalities, Satomi," Tobi said, grinning proudly at her, but with a gleam of something else in his eyes, an emotion Satomi didn't know how to identify, but somehow knew she was familiar with. Satomi smiled lightly at his response, subtly raising her guard despite knowing that Jack trusted him. Better safe than dead.

"Unfortunately, _Mr. Tobi_, I'm one for formalities. Might I ask how you know Doc?" Satomi motioned to Jack, who was still in shock. Apparently Tobi took this as a sign to join them at their lovely little booth. He took a seat next to Jack, sliding in smoothly next to him and grinning at the strange woman.

"What, no formalities for Jackie here? Well, I suppose you've probably known him for a while. Me and Jackie go way back. In fact, we're best friends. Mind telling me why you are travelling with him here on Tango Island, instead of him being back on Sacre Island where he belongs? I'm only asking you this because he seems kinda unresponsive right now." Tobi questioned on his own, ignoring the elbows that were rammed into his ribcage by Jack every time he referred to the other man as "Jackie".

"Me and the good doctor are travelling buddies. This is our first island since we left Sacre Island. That's the most of it, though," Satomi responded, distinctly leaving out the part where they were pirates. She wasn't _technically _lying. She was just avoiding the truth, was all.

"Actually," Jack began, and Satomi knew he was going to tell Tobi, "We're pirates."

There was an awkward silence as Tobi stared at Jack, then at Satomi. He glanced back at Jack, then Satomi, and back again. He continued to do this, not properly processing this new information for at least three minutes, until the waiter arrived.

"I am so sorry it took this long to get to you all," he began, clearly not realizing he had just interrupted a very serious moment. The waiter looked flustered as he pulled out a pen and notepad, breathing a little hard. "We just had a little trouble. Anyways, I'm Cato and I'll be your server. What can I get you today?"

"Can I get some iced tea and a cheese burger, please? Nothing but ketchup and cheese on it," Satomi ordered, not making eye contact with the waiter due to certain socializing issues she had. Jack could only stare at the waiter, surprised by his sudden appearance while Tobi hadn't even reacted. "Um, dudes, order. Since Jack just told you some pretty big news, I'll pay for anything you might want, Tobi."

"I'll have a chicken sandwich," Jack said, glancing at the first thing he saw on one of the menus that had already been at the table when they got there, wondering how Satomi knew they had hamburgers if she hadn't even touched a menu. Tobi still wasn't reacting, so Satomi leaned over a little, and lightly smacked her hand against his cheek, somewhat effectively bringing him back to planet earth.

"Order, dufus," she said firmly, and he looked like he was struggling to form words.

"Umm, ah, uh, pi-pickle," he said, causing everyone to look at him strangely.

"A pickle?" the waiter questioned, wondering if he heard correctly since Tobi had said it so weekly.

"Pickle," Tobi said a little more strongly this time, nodding his head swiftly. The waiter just wrote the request down and walked off. Satomi burst into laughter, definitely amused by Tobi's mental state.

"Alright man, you're gonna have to get over this new information and either accept it and not call the Marines on us, or disapprove of it and call in the Marines, effectively letting us get in some practice on fighting, 'cause I honestly don't think the marines on this island will be much of a challenge, not to boast or anything." Satomi honestly meant every word she said. "And if you don't start moving soon, I'm gonna stab you with a spoon."

Satomi gave him a threatening expression, her violet eyes concentrated. When he didn't react, however, she just sighed and gave up.

"You don't even have a spoon, and how do you expect to hurt him with such a blunt object?" Jack argued, skeptical of a spoon's effectiveness and unhappy with the thought of his apparently good friend being harmed.

"Well, I'll ask for one, and you'd be surprised with how much damage I can do with a spoon. About a year ago, this one lady made me really upset, and I actually cut her finger off with a spoon," Satomi informed, effectively making Jack nervous about Tobi's safety. She turned to try and get their waiters attention, opened her mouth without producing sound and closing it a few times, and then blinked. She turned back towards Jack.

"Umm, could you ask the waiter for a spoon for me?" she pleaded, knowing that Jack knew of her social impediments and hoping he would take pity on her. Jack gave her a look that let her know he thought she was pathetic, but agreed nonetheless, trusting his captain not to bring any actual physical harm to his friend. After getting the spoon, Satomi shoved it in Tobi's face, trying to get his attention.

"C'mon dude, I know you like having all your fingers. Or perhaps I'll gauge out your eyes instead, hmm?" when the threat failed again, she tried another tactic, "Dude, we're pirates, get over it!"

The sheer bluntness of this statement, along with a relatively loud smack on the cheek, seemed to catch his attention, causing the distant look in his blue eyes to fade away. He sat a little straighter, and he glanced anxiously between Satomi and Jack. Satomi almost worried that the man was gonna start attacking them or something, and she had to remind herself not to be annoyed with Jack for telling this man. Jack was smart, and he knew what he was doing when he had told Tobi. At least, she hoped he knew what he was doing.

"No joke?" Tobi clarified, and there was a look of hope in his eyes that was quickly crushed when Satomi and Jack both shook their heads as a no. His expression reminded Satomi vaguely of a kicked puppy, and she almost felt guilty. She was, after all, quite the dog person.

"Jaaaaaaccckkkiiieeee," he began in a whiny voice, and all the guilt left as she knew he was fine, "I feel so betrayed. You abandoned me by not joining the Marines, and then run off and become a pirate with this woman without even telling me? You're a horrible best friend!"

Despite the playfulness in his tone, Satomi wondered if she should have been offended when he said 'this woman' but then smiled at the words. She knew that somewhere in the world there was a woman her age that would say similar words to her the next time she saw her, minus the whole Marine comment. She was thoroughly amused by this realization, and felt vague excitement at the thought of getting to see the woman again.

"Oh, get over yourself," Jack said, flicking his best friend in the forehead, and rolling her eyes, "And quit acting like an idiot."

"You guys are such dudes," Satomi said, gaining their attention and chuckling slightly. She found their familiar behavior towards each other a nice change of pace.

"So Jack, what made you decide to become a pirate, of all things? What about becoming a doctor, like you planned?" Tobi questioned, a glint of innocent curiosity in his eyes that Satomi felt a Marine shouldn't have when asking questions like this. Perhaps he was just a naïve little country bumpkin like Jack.

"Well, Captain here offered me a chance to achieve something that no one else would have ever been able to," Jack responded, a genuinely happy smile on his lightly tanned face. This seemed to greatly intrigue Tobi.

"And what was that?" Tobi asked, wishing his friend would just get it all out. He hadn't expected Satomi to answer instead, though.

"Freedom," she informed him, a look of glee in her eyes at the mere thought of the word. Her one worded response caused something to click in Tobi's head, though what it was, he wasn't quite sure. "You see, the entire goal that me and the crew I plan on accumulating will be Freedom. You've heard of heaven, I'm sure, and Freedom is the closest thing to heaven here on this godforsaken planet. Of course, the crew currently consists of only Jack and I, but it will grow, of this I am positive."

"Freedom, huh," Tobi mumbled thoughtfully to himself, as Jack nodded in agreement with what his Captain was saying. Before anyone could speak up to continue the conversation, their waiter arrived with their food, placing it in front of them graciously.

"Uh, was that thing there when I took your orders?" the waiter asked, gesturing wildly to Jack's scythe, obviously not having noticed it earlier.

"Yup. You probably just didn't notice it because you seemed to be in such a rush," Satomi offered a plausible explanation as to why he hadn't seen it earlier. He looked ready to say something about it, before shaking his head to himself and rushing off again.

"Why do I have a pickle?" Tobi asked with a confused expression on his face as he looked down at his plat with a lone pickle.

"Oh, I told you to order something when you were in that weird denial daze, and that's all you would say, so… yeah. I guess you were just in too much shock when you found out we were pirates to remember what was going on. I also threatened to stab you with a spoon," Satomi once again offered a plausible explanation for his lack of memory while Jack just shook his head as he realized that Satomi wasn't the only one who knew strange people.

"Oh… wait, you threatened to stab me with a spoon? How does that even work?" Tobi questioned, a look of shock on his face directed to the silver haired woman sitting across from him.

"You'd be surprised of the many wondrous ways to physically harm a person with just a spoon. I just didn't wanna actually hurt you since you're Jack's buddy, so I found another way to get you over your denial," Satomi grinned mischievously at him, and he decided he was glad he snapped out of whatever that was when he had, unconsciously rubbing his sore cheek.

The three of them managed to finish their meals quickly, with Satomi finishing first (much to the surprise of the other two, as her cheeseburger had been huge, and Tobi should have won since all he had was a pickle) and made a plan of action.

"I'm just on lunch break, so I gotta get headed back to the base. You guys go ahead and get what you need, but try not to cause a scene. And stop talking about being pirates, because that will get you guys into some serious trouble. The Marines on this island are also pretty crappy, and they'd have no qualms about killing you without a fair trial. They're nothing like the Marines back on Shreeve Island, the island I was previously stationed at," Tobi informed with a small trace of concern in his eyes that Jack noticed.

As long as Jack had known Tobi, Tobi had done nothing but idolize the Marines. It had always been his friends dream to join them, and bring Justice to their terrible world. That and take the title of Strongest Martial Artist in the world (which was more important to the marine). Jack could tell something in Tobi had changed his opinion however, because during the small chat they had managed in between shoving food in their mouths, there had been a look of disgust at every mention of the marines. This truly concerned him, and he had a feeling that he and his Captain wouldn't be able to do much relaxing on Tango Island.

"Awesome. Sounds like a plan," Satomi said, quietly adding 'Stan' afterwards in her mind to complete the rhyme. "See ya 'round, dude."

She and Jack stood up, causing Tobi to have to get out of the booth as well, but he quickly sat back down, obviously staying a little longer, using his lunch break to the fullest. Satomi laid some money on the table, telling him to use it for paying.

"I better be seeing you soon, Tobi. We have some catching up to do, since you've been so slack on writing me, and I have some things to tell you," Jack told his friend, just barely managing to grab his scythe before getting dragged off by his overly excited Captain.

'You and me both buddy,' Tobi thought quietly to himself, easing comfortably into his seat in the booth, dreading when he would have to return to the Marine base for his work. He closed his eyes and tried to relax, thinking about the earlier conversation they had had about freedom.

Jack had looked so happy when they were talking about it. In fact, Tobi himself could feel a small bit of excitement stirring when he heard the word. He didn't often hear people use that word, and the world was not what one would call 'free'. But he had to admit, if anyone on the planet was gonna achieve true freedom, it would have to be a pirate. He almost felt himself wishing the he could be free. 'No,' he thought to himself. He had duties after all, such as striving to become stronger. He had to become stronger, so that he might one day accomplish his goal.

His mental rest was interrupted as his eyes snapped open when he heard a familiar 'click' nearby. He looked over to see a fellow Marine, a superior with a nasty scar running from his nose to his right ear, holding a pistol to his head, cocked and ready to shoot.

"Well now, look what we have here. A traitor. I happen to have over heard your little chat with that wretched woman and her friend. I hope you realize that now you're all going to die," the marine said, looking angrily at him. Tobi silently cursed himself for letting his guard down. There were three marines standing behind his superior, and while he knew he could've handled the other three, this man was different. Tobi was in some _deep _shit.

"Not only was that woman a pirate, but judging be her hair color, she's also the daughter of Suzu, The Siren of the South, the woman who gave me this scar," the Marine, Marine Commander Strand, and second in command of the Marine Base stationed on Tango Island said as he gestured to his nasty scar.

Tobi swallowed. The Commander was very defensive about the scar, and anyone who mentioned it was often punished severely. Now, having thought about it, Satomi could very well be that woman's daughter, as she looked vaguely similar to the very wanted woman. Even if she wasn't Suzu the Siren's daughter though, she obviously looked enough like the infamous pirate to incur the wrath of the Marine's by being considered her daughter and it was already known that Satomi was a pirate. And he had been seen speaking with her in a friendly manner. He was going to die. There would probably be a public execution for him on the island or something. It would probably also be really painful, and he would be labeled a traitor, so even if he got away somehow, he would forever be wanted by the Marines. Not that he wasn't concerned about Jack and Satomi, but he was now officially concerned about how royally screwed he was. Tobi kept his eyes open, as he watched Strand tighten his finger on the trigger of the gun, upset that, from what he could see, he wasn't getting the public execution he expected in the town square. At least that way, he might've been able to form a plan. Obviously though, he would be dying right now.

"So, I guess this means I'm dead?" Tobi asked, though he knew the answer to his very question. He was just trying to maybe get a few more minutes of thinking, in hopes of coming up with a plan..

"Oh yes, Warrant Officer. You. Are. Dead."


	2. Moronic Marines

Well, would you look at that? I actually updated on time! I'm quite proud of myself for managing that. I'm going to go ahead and apologize ahead of time for any boringness in this story. I've been distracted by the drama of my friends Jimmy and Rian (those aren't there real names) leaving little focus on this story. I would also like to thank Caxe, Kwerli, and MeatAndWatermelons for reviewing or giving OC's to me, plus Kleinto for alerting this story! It makes me very happy, and has been the highlight of my past two weeks. Anyways, I hope y'all like this chapter!

* * *

Exiting Ricky's, Satomi tucked the newspaper she had discovered into her dark grey messenger bag, having not gotten to read it yet. Jack was following close behind her, scythe in hand, and the pair walked together, looking for a good supply shop.

"So… Mr. Tobi seems like a nice guy," Satomi said slowly, thinking about the marine. She really wasn't sure how to feel about him yet. He was relatively pleasant, and had handled the news of them being pirates well, minus his little pickle scene. He was still a marine though, and while she tried to keep an open mind about the goodness of marines, she wasn't sure she would ever be able to fully trust a marine. She would let her distrust slide for the time being, however, because Tobi was Jack's friend, and she certainly trusted Jack.

"Yeah. He's a pretty cool guy," Jack said quite simply.

"Mm. He's also a marine," Satomi stated, wondering if Jack actually noticed what she was getting at.

"Yup," Jack responded, and Satomi rolled her eyes. Apparently, she wasn't good at being subtle.

"Why is that, anyways? Does he wanna make some huge difference in the world or something?" Satomi questioned, finally getting to her point. She knew she was best at not beating around the bush, so she wasn't sure why she had even bothered doing so in the first place. Perhaps she hadn't wanted to offend Jack.

"Well, Tobi's a good guy really, but he certainly didn't join up with the Marines to make some huge difference. Tobi doesn't care much about that stuff. He became a marine because he thinks it's the only way to accomplish his dream," Jack informed Satomi, and she quickly began analyzing the information. At least he wasn't obsessed with Absolute Justice or some crap like that. Then again, if he had been, he wouldn't have let them leave.

"And what's his dream?" Satomi asked, becoming even more curious.

"He wants to become the strongest martial artist in the world," at these words, Satomi's brain quickly reminded her who currently held that title, "which means he has to defeat-"

"'Black Night' Lane," Satomi interrupted, already quite familiar with the name and epithet. She grimaced slightly. That would be emotionally and physically traumatizing for poor Tobi. Satomi's mind immediately flashed to 'The Wall', a wall in the kitchen of her small boat that was covered in the wanted posters of criminals that inspired her. Perhaps that was a little weird, but Satomi had a lot of connections to criminals, and liked to keep up to date with stuff like that. Lane's poster was on that wall, showing the image of a fairly young, black haired man with brown eyes and a twisted smile. He was certainly frightening, especially with a bounty of a little over 600 million Beli.

"Yeah, it's been his dream ever since we were kids. He left the island six months ago to join up with the marines, and I haven't heard anything from him since," Jack said, and this caused Satomi's brain to whirl a little faster in her thought process.

"So I'm guessing he doesn't know about Marie, then?" Satomi almost flinched when she said the name, but she held back for Jack's sake. Jack just shook his head, and Satomi felt a little bad mentioning the name. Heck, she felt bad when she thought the name.

Marie had been Jack's girlfriend who had died four months ago from cancer, Jack being unable to save her despite his career as a doctor. Satomi was sure Tobi wanted to know why his best friend wasn't with the woman he had been planning on proposing to. He had obviously been kind enough not to ask why he was instead now a pirate with some weirdo pirate woman that wasn't the love of his life. Sure, Jack wouldn't have even been alive if he hadn't met Satomi, but Tobi didn't know that. When she had met Jack, he had been so depressed, but she picked him up, dusted him off, then quite rudely, in a manner only she can manage, told him to get off his "sorry butt and stop being such a useless piece of trash," her words exactly. Despite how much of a slap to the face her harsh words had been, she had really done him a favor, not to mention saved his life twice in the process.

"Well, I wish him luck with that, 'cause there's no way he's accomplishing that as a Marine."

"Why do you say that?" Jack was genuinely curious. Did Satomi hate the marines so much she thought them incapable of winning such titles as The World's Strongest Martial Artist?

"Well, the Marines are great and all for beating up pirates, and sure Lane is a pirate, but that's not how one goes about beating specified pirates. As a Marine, he will always be required to follow an order, lest he be claimed a traitor. He will kinda in a way somewhat always have to put the needs of the people before his own personal gain. Sorta. Plus, Lane is a deliriously strong pirate. A member of the Brothers Alliance, not to mention he is only ever in the second half of the Grand Line. Just finding that man will take a lot of strength. Tobi probably won't be stationed anywhere near the Grand Line for a long time, so I hope to god that he is a patient man. Plus, accomplishing something like that takes the freedom to do what you want and go at your own pace, something the Marines can never provide," there was a light smirk on Satomi's face as she gave Jack a sideways glance, before noticing a nice looking little supply shop. "How 'bout we check that place for supplies."

They made their way in the direction of the little shop, Jack mulling over Satomi's words. Perhaps she had a point. Jack knew from experience of being the son of a marine that you didn't have a lot of say as to what happened to you once you signed up as a marine. Your life was no longer in your control. That could also explain why Tobi seemed so unhappy every time Marine's had been brought up, even if he hadn't properly shown it. Maybe Tobi had realized what Satomi had just told him.

As they neared the homely little shop, something weird happened. A woman, who looked a bit like she could have worked there, peered through the window of the little door. Once she noticed them, a look of fright mingled with disgust crossed her face, and she flipped the sign on the door that said 'Open' to say 'Closed'. Jack and Satomi both stopped to stare for a second, before looking at each other.

"Well okay then. The supply hunt is not over," Satomi stated, quickly recovery from her surprise and acting as if nothing had happened. Jack frowned at her nonchalance, and then noticed that the once busy streets were now completely void of people.

"Shouldn't we be worried about how we're the only people on the street?" Jack wondered worriedly. Satomi looked around, obviously only just noticing the empty streets, but shrugged it off.

"I'm sure it's fine. Besides, I bet people are just intimidated by your big butt scythe," she responded calmly, still walking. Jack decided to let it go, trusting that they could handle any situation thrown their way. Oh, what an optimist Jack was.

They continued on their way, completely unknowing of the situation Tobi was in. The two pirates quickly discovered another shop with a 'Closed' sign.

"This one seems empty," Satomi stated, sighing lightly as she peered into the door, her forehead pressed against the glass. As she pulled her head away, she brought her arm up to the glass, using the sleeve of her lightweight black jacket to rub away the mark left on the glass by her skin. She continued to gaze into the window, looking past the reflection of her brown eyes, wondering if something was going on.

"Okay, something's definitely up. Look, all the stores on this street are closed," Jack pointed out, and Satomi looked around to see that he was indeed right. A dark feeling took root in the pit of her stomach as she realized that not only were the streets empty and stores all closed, but that when Jack and Satomi had arrived the entire town was actually very busy. Now, it was as if the town was completely dead.

"You certainly appear to be right, Doc. Let's keep looking around, I betcha we'll find someone somewhere around here," Satomi suggested, moving away from the door to the shop and motioning for Jack to follow her. He did so, and they quickly moved on. Turning a corner, they actually managed to find exactly what they were looking for, people.

"Wait," Satomi whispered quietly, sticking her arm in Jack's way to prevent him from moving forward anymore. They were looking at what appeared to be the town square, with what Satomi could only describe as a platform or stage in the center. There were around fifteen people standing solemnly in a crowd right in front of the stage. There appeared to be five marines on the stage; however one was on his knees and appeared to have his hands bound together, though she couldn't tell if it was by cuffs or rope. Surrounding the crowd in a manner that reminded Satomi of sheep dogs were three more marines.

"I think that has something to do with the weirdness of this town. Let's try and get closer. Without drawing attention to ourselves, of course," Satomi whispered, and the slowly but swiftly made their way out of the shadows and into the crowd. Satomi almost wished she had worn her hat that day, so that the silver of her hair would have been less noticeable, but knew that is was too late to want her hat.

* * *

The closer they came, the easier it was for Satomi to analyze the situation. All of the marines appeared to be simple grunts by the uniforms they were wearing, none of them legitimate ranking officers like Tobi was. She could see that the man on his knees had his hands bound by rope, which told her that the base on this island simply wasn't important enough for headquarters to waste its money to buy it fancy toys like handcuffs and such. The man had a black eye and a bloody nose, and Satomi had a feeling that he had gotten those _after _being bound by ropes.

"I hope this execution will serve to remind you all that fallowing Captain Moustache's orders is your number one priority," one of the Marines was saying, as they got closer. The fact that they had grunts handling what appeared to be a somewhat important looking event such as an execution made Satomi believe that the man in charge of the island was arrogant, and also had a really dumb name. It was just plain careless to let grunts like these to handle official things. Satomi and Jack were towards the back of the crowd, and next to Satomi stood a silently weeping woman. Satomi decided she would ask her questions, as the speaking marine was going off about the awesomeness of Captain Moustache, and she felt that any information gotten from him would be pointless, because honestly, how cool could a guy with name of Moustache really be?

"Uhm, Miss? Why exactly are they executing the man up there?" Satomi asked as quietly as possible, trying not to call too much attention to them. The woman looked at her with blood shot eyes, and just staring at her made Satomi nervous. She didn't like it when people cried. Jack just stood awkwardly next to Satomi, not really sure what to do with himself. As good as he was with people, he, like every other man, was horrible with crying women.

"That-that's my husband," the woman began, "and they're killing him because one of the other villager's couldn't pay their t-taxes. He was a-against their execution, so he offered to take the man's place."

This only vaguely surprised Satomi, as she knew the woes of the world and the acts of moronic marines, but what did surprise Satomi was the fact that the man was brave enough to give his life for someone else, and that the woman was brave enough to come to her own husband's execution. If Satomi fell in love with a man (which would never happen, because that's just not how she rolls) and then the man were suddenly sentenced to be executed, she wouldn't go to the execution except to maybe attempt to set him free. In a violent manner, might she add.

"Well, why are you here to watch this?" Satomi asked, struggling to keep her voice quiet. She had a naturally loud voice, the kind that carries easily, much to her dismay. The woman studied her for a second, before responding.

"You're certainly not form around here. When someone is executed for breaking a law set in place by the Marine Captain, any of that persons friends or family members are required to attend, so that they will remember to follow the rules, and the person being executed is an example of the punishment that will be given to those who disobey," the woman informed her, and that made the words the marine had been saying clearer to Satomi. 'That's just dumb,' Satomi thought to herself, but her entire opinion of the situation only worsened when she noticed a little girl standing on the other side of the woman and clasping tightly to the woman's hand.

Satomi struggled not to overreact to the sight of the little girl's tearstained face, as Jack noticed the little girl. Jack knew exactly how the little girl must have been feeling, because he had once been in her exact situation before, and he knew instantly that he wanted to help this woman and little girl.

"What's your name, sweetheart?" Satomi questioned the little girl gently, bending over and placing her hands on her knees for support. The little girl looked at her, surprised she was being spoken to.

"S-Sadie," she responded softly, and Satomi gave her a gentle smile, calming herself on the inside so she wouldn't do anything too brash. She was using the girl as a distraction from her undiluted anger towards the Marines, in hopes of quickly tossing together a simple plan.

"Well Sadie, it's nice to meet you. My name is Satomi," Satomi tilted her head to the side ever so slightly in a kind manner, and Jack decided that the woman could not be his Captain, for she was handling this situation far less violently than he would expect. He had assumed that she would have started yelling pathetic insults at the marines, before beating them up. Not kindly speak to this little girl, especially with a kindness he had never seen in her. Although, Jack really didn't give himself enough credit for how much he actually knew his Captain

"That's your daddy up there, right?" Satomi questioned, her brown eyes staring in a concentrated manner at the girl, and she slipped her right hand into her messenger bag as Sadie nodded. "Well, don't feel sad. I'm gonna make sure your daddy is alright, okay?"

"Wha-? How?" Sadie's mother asked as her eyes widened in a nervous fear. She had watched the exchange between her daughter and this strange woman with curiosity, but now all she could think was that the silver haired girl was gonna get herself killed.

"Simple. A little violence is all I'm gonna need. Although, it doesn't mean we're gonna be going in all guns blazing," Satomi answered the woman before turning to Jack as she as she finally revealed a pocket knife from within her messenger bag.

"Jack, you're gonna stay here in the crowd while I'm setting that dude free. Once that's taken care of, I want you to take the man back to our boat, since I'm assuming that's the safest place around here, what with the dogs and all that. Treat his wounds, and then grab my staff and bring it to me. I plan on pretty much having us take out all the moronic marines on this island. While you're taking care of that poor man and grabbing my lovely, I'm gonna try and find Mr. Tobi." Jack nodded at her plan, glad that she had actually thought it out, and somewhat concerned that she referred to her staff as her "lovely," not to mention a little nervous about the whole situation. He wasn't sure what was going to happen with Tobi. They could end up fighting with him, or against him, and Jack knew which of the two options he would prefer.

"Toodles," Satomi said with an ecstatic grin, before swiftly making her way through the ground, muttering apologies as she bumped into people and leaving Jack behind with the woman and her daughter. Jack glanced awkwardly to the woman next to her and forced a smile.

* * *

"Uh, hi," Jack mumbled, grey eyes wide with apprehension as he began to imagine what would soon follow his captains actions. The doctor really wasn't sure if he would be able to survive having a captain like Satomi.

"She's going to get herself killed," the woman mumbled under her breath, but loud enough for Jack to hear. Jack merely sighed heavily, before transferring his focus back to the soon to be interrupted execution, surprised to see the same marine still speaking of the almighty power of Marine Captain Moustache. What, did they think the man a god or something? Satomi was right, they were morons.

Satomi could feel the adrenaline already moving through her veins as she got closer to the platform. She knew there was an excited grin on her face, and she was glad to be setting her plan in motion. She felt a little guilty that she hadn't explained the entirety of her plan to her first mate, but Jack would get over it. She tightened her grip on her pocket knife right as she reached the platform, before she agilely hopped onto it.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" One marine snapped at her as he charged forward with a sword drawn, interrupting the marine giving his speech mid-sentence. The crowd's attention was drawn to her as she merely stepped to the side, easily avoiding the weak attack.

"Oh, just having some fun is all," she responded, trying not to giggle madly. She really wasn't that crazy, but sometimes it was just hard not to seem like a madwoman. Once he flew passed her, having not expected her to dodge, she brought her knee right into his gut as hard as she could, taking him off her list of marines to knock out. He fell to the ground with an "Oof!" and that was that.

Everyone just stared at her for a second, and she felt the urge to giggle strengthen. Okay, she was a little loopy once the adrenaline got to her, but whatever. It made the fighting more fun. All the marines could do was stare at her in shock, surprised that someone was actually trying to fight back at them.

"Well? Are you marines just gonna stand there like the morons you are, or are you gonna try and save some face by seeing if you can beat up little ol' me?" Satomi questioned, spreading her arms out in a taunting manner. She hadn't been able to release any stress properly lately, and this would be great for mending those issues. "Wait, just give me a moment, I forgot to put on my gloves."

Satomi motioned for them to stop before they actually attacked and pulled a pair of black gloves out her bag and putting them on. When Satomi realized that the marines were standing still, having not moved an inch, she smirked with utter amusement. Marines were so naïve and dumb, it was almost cute.

"Ha! You guys seriously gave me time to put on my gloves? How polite and kind of you! Now, here's a quick little pointer before I pummel you gentlemen into the ground: don't give enemies or pirates like me time to prepare for a fight! 'Cause they'd never do the same for you," the majority of the marines were still staring at her, their mouths agape while one who had been circling the ground whipped out a pistol and aimed for Satomi. He pulled the trigger, but she was already on the move, a grin on her face from the thrill of what she prayed would be a good fight. The bullet nicked her right cheek, and she hissed slightly in pain, but otherwise continued to make her way to the closest marine. She had experienced worst pain, and she wasn't gonna lose just because of a simple scratch. She was made of tougher material than that!

Satomi aimed a punch at the closest marine, but he managed to duck as it flew rapidly at his face. This really didn't help his situation, because her foot quickly found its way to the spot where the sun doesn't shine. Satomi almost felt guilty at the immense pain on his face, but she quickly rid herself of the emotion. They didn't deserve pity. As he fell to the ground, she brought her knee up and it rammed right into his chin, forcing his head up and effectively knocking him out. She noticed a fist out of the corner of her eye, and she turned to catch the wrist with her right hand, using the man's momentum to pull him a little farther forward, positioning herself on the outside of his body to his right, so she could splay her left arm across his chest and shove him backwards, meanwhile using her left foot to push roughly against his Achilles tendon and sweeping him onto the ground. She forced her knee into his gut to hold him down, and showed him her pocket knife with a malicious grin.

"No worries, I'm not actually gonna cut you, but you should be glad that I'm probably one of the nicest pirates you're ever gonna meet," she stated tauntingly, before reaching forward with her free hand to grasp his hair and use it to ram his head on the ground, forcing him unconscious as well. "That's three down, three to go."

The people in the crowd had begun to panic as the two marines that weren't on the platform quickly made their way over, not even thinking about the benefits of staying where they were when they had _guns. _Satomi just slipped the pocket knife back into her bag, deciding she'd rather do this the old fashioned way.

"What do you people think you're doing?!" Satomi snapped at them, irked by their lack of fighting skill. "You would have a huger chance at beating me if you morons had stayed where you were and shot at me! Do they teach you people nothing?"

The marines ignored her as they all surrounded her, taking turns to attack her. 'Okay,' Satomi thought to herself, 'Now they are just pathetic.'

"Don't you know how to look for an opening when it comes to fighting? And you should all attack at once, as that would increase y'all's chances of landing a hit," Satomi suggested, without really thinking what she was saying. That was when she realized that she wasn't a teacher and she needed to shut her yapper. The three Marines glanced at each other before deciding to take her up on that advice. Two lunged for her, each with swords and the one with a pistol stayed, readying for a shot, though she really didn't understand why he thought he could use it at such a close range, but she wasn't giving them any more advice. She had her limitations on how much lecturing she could do in one day, after all.

The one with the pistol shot five bullets rapidly, seconds after she twirled out of the way, four of which landed in one of his buddies with a sword, and she knew that his gun could only shoot six before it needed to be reloaded. Since he had been the one to shoot at her earlier, she assumed that he was bulletless. This meant that she had a minute to deal with his sword wielding co-worker. She dropped to the ground, sticking her right leg out and spinning swiftly from the ground, using her extended leg to sweep the legs out from underneath the marine. She quickly jumped up while the Marine with the pistol was busy trying to reload his gun, but fumbling pathetically with his hands. She brought her right leg up as high as she could, higher than her head, and brought it down hard enough onto the solar plexus of the man lying on the ground that all the air was knocked from his lungs. He began to struggle for oxygen, and she decided to leave him be. He wouldn't be causing any trouble for a while.

Satomi tackled the pistol-weilding marine just as he got the gun loaded, and wrestled the gun out of his hands, pinning him to the ground with the gun pressed just underneath the man's throat.

"Aright, Mr. Marine. I have a few questions for you," Satomi said threateningly, and she had to remind herself not to lose control and do something she would regret later. She didn't want to get carried away, because that always ended badly for her.

"Well I won't be answering questions for pirate scum like you, bitch," the man scowled, as he attempted to spit in her face, though he was rather unsuccessful. Satomi glanced over at the crowd to see who remained. Over half the crowd had disappeared, leaving only Sadie, her mother, Jack, and four other men.

"Yo, lady! Take Sadie and go home! We'll take care of your husband. Jack, get up here and take care of this man. Get him back to our boat so he won't be a liability. You four men! Wanna make yourselves useful? Or do you support the blasted marines that are dictating this island?" Satomi shouted her orders, and the woman scurried off with Sadie, much to Satomi's relief. She didn't want the poor child to see something that innocent eyes should avoid.

"Depends on your idea of useful," one of the men shouted back as Jack sighed heavily and made his way up to the platform, relieved that his captain was okay.

"I just want you guys to tie these morons up for me, and find any marines that you might know that are actually good and tell them to take the day off or something, 'cause I plan on fighting any marine currently at the Marine Base. Oh, and don't treat this guy's horrendously painful looking wound," Satomi informed, pointing at the marine that had called her a bitch with his very own pistol.

"What wound?" the marine and another of the men questioned, and Satomi pulled the trigger of the pistol that was still being pointed at the marine.

"That wound," Satomi stated, smiling smugly down at the marine as he reacted. It had only hit him in the leg, but it was dangerously close to an artery. He shrieked like a little girl (much to Satomi's sadistic pleasure) before clasping his leg tightly.

"Hell! That frickin' hurts, bitch!" he snapped, and Satomi felt herself get a little angrier as she watched his leg bleeding profusely. The men hovered around him wondering what they were gonna do with him. Satomi suddenly pulled some rope randomly out of her bag.

"Does it now? Good. And keep using that vulgar language around me if you seriously wanna get shot again. Trust me, I have no problem killing a butt like you," Satomi said before directing her words to the civilian men, "Y'all can use this rope to tie 'em up."

"Is there anything you don't carry in that bag?" Jack questioned, having just untied the poor marine, wondering why in the world she would have rope in her bag.

"There are plenty things I don't have in here. I just like to carry odd knickknacks in case of emergencies like this one," Satomi said smiling, before turning to the recently freed marine who was being supported by Jack. "Now, Mr. Marine, I want you to go with the Doc here, and let him fix you up."

"Thank you Miss. My name is Luca, and I don't know how I'll ever repay you. Are you really planning on taking out all the Marines here? That's dangerous business, and a young lady like yourself could easily be killed," Luca said, worried for the young woman who had saved him.

"You can repay me by addressing me as Satomi and not Miss. I'm a pirate, so fighting marines comes naturally to me. Besides, Doc here will be helping me out, and I'm a lot tougher than I look. You shouldn't underestimate someone because they're a woman, alright?" Satomi smiled kindly at the man, before turning back to her first mate, "Remember the plan?"

"Yeah, take this guy to the boat, fix him up, grab your staff, and meet up with you after you find Tobi, right?" Jack quickly stated, eager to get the guy somewhere he could be treated. He couldn't properly support himself, and his ribcage seemed pretty badly bruised. Jack thought it was possible the marine had a fractured rib, which was never good.

"More or less," Satomi responded, before turning and leaping off the execution platform, not even noticing that her cheek was bleeding slightly from having been shot earlier. "I'm checking Ricky's first to see if he's still there, then I'll head to the Marine Base. You might as well head straight to the Base, but try and be quick. I won't go charging in without you, but keep in mind that I'm an impatient woman, Jackie."

Jack rolled his eyes when he heard her call him by the nickname Tobi had used for him earlier, but watched his captain dash off with a smile on his face nonetheless. At least he had a capable captain, who had a heart.

"All right, Luca, let's get you treated," Jack said, hoping he would be able to find his way back to the docks without being hassled.

"Might I go with you? My name is Micah, and I'm his brother," one of the men requested, stepping forward. Jack studied him for a moment, before nodding.

"Thank you so much, Doctor," Luca said, gratefully.

"No problem. Just don't die, or my captain will have my hide."


	3. Strange Happenings

A.N.: I'm not really sure where the Cato stuff came from. I was just typing my little story and then, Wha-bam! Cato evolved. It's like when I'm playng pokemon and one of my favorites evolves into something even cooler and I'm totally not expecting it but it really makes me proud. I'm such nerd sometimes. Hahaha, I'm just sitting here laughing maniacally about that, and thinking ways to involve Cato in the future. Oh, and Kenneth Jones is also a relatively new character too. He's personally one of my favorites. Anyhow, if any of you guys like Full Metal Alchemist my uber lazy sister posted a fanfic about that in my account and she currently goes by Thalia-tan77. Also, my other sister (the not lazy one) made an acount and she is called Key-kun99 and she will soon be posting a Harry Potter fanfic. (Do you like the names? Their names were my idea)

* * *

Satomi rushed through the streets swiftly, having already come to the conclusion she was lost. She had taken off her gloves, and was wondering if perhaps people just didn't leave their houses when an execution was supposed to be going on. Satomi sighed as she looked around, eager to set her plan in motion and find Tobi. She had a really somewhat bad feeling in the pit of her stomach, and she needed to hurry. She almost regretted wearing her dark blue jeans that day, as it hampered her fighting and running, but she quickly got over that. After all, she quite obviously had more important things to do.

She had finally found somewhat familiar territory, but as she ran around a corner, she rammed roughly into another person. Satomi found herself being steadied by a pair of strong arms. A feeling of nausea filled her stomach at the contact of a stranger, and she quickly but nonchalantly pulled away, spouting apologies.

"I am so sorry!" she apologized, a look of guilt set on her face as she stared at a man just slightly taller than her. He had very noticeable features, with red hair that seemed to somewhat defy gravity by standing up relatively straight. He had a strange shade of blue for his eyes, and what appeared to be a birthmark on his lower left cheek. He was wearing a nice red dress shirt with black slacks and dress shoes, and Satomi felt slightly intimidated by his presence. He reminded her of her father's friends when she was young, which was kinda creepy to her.

"No no, I must apologize. I was not watching where I was going. Please forgive me," he bowed his head slightly in apology, and Satomi's face reddened with embarrassment. She stuck her hands up in a defensive manner, waving them slightly.

"No, I wasn't watching where I was going either, so it's really no problem. Not to mention I was in far too much of a rush," Satomi rushed the words out of her mouth, and had a sudden desire to shrink into herself. Strange people were okay with Jack around, but Satomi had an irrational fear of dealing with strangers on her own, especially nice strangers.

"Well, I'm glad you don't mind, Madame. My name is Kenneth Jones, are you alright? Did you get hurt or anything of the sort?" Jones asked, as he smiled lightly at her, and Satomi got even more nervous. She was terrified of conversation. This guy was causing her to feel incredibly awkward, and it didn't help that she had actually just noticed he was relatively attractive. She tried to avoid noticing things like that with all her might.

"Uh, no. I'm fine. And uh, you can just call me , um, could you perhaps direct me to a small restaurant by the name of Ricky's? I'm in a bit of a hurry," Satomi hoped he would give her an answer and then let her be on her way.

"Why of course. But it will come at a price," Jones said, and suddenly a notepad and a pen appeared in his hands. Satomi wasn't really sure where they had come from, but she certainly wasn't going to ask. People always wanted to talk more than necessary. "Just answer two questions for me."

"Sure, whatever. Go ahead," Satomi offered, tapping her right hand swiftly on her thigh, in a rush to get to the little restaurant.

"Are you in any form of relation to Suzu the Siren?" Jones asked, and Satomi scowled. Everyone always assumed crap like that when it came to her and it got really annoying after a while.

"No. I've never met the woman in my life. Just because my hair is bloody silver doesn't mean crap! It's just a genetic mutation and I'm not related to her," Satomi had to admit, she felt kinda offended when people mentioned Suzu the Siren. They just didn't understand. Satomi frowned anxiously when she saw Jones write this information down.

"My apologies, Miss Satomi, it's just that not only is your hair similar to hers, but you have a shirt with a jolly roger on it, which is very pirate-like behavior," the young man informed her, and she glanced down at her black t-shirt with a simple Jolly Roger on it.

"You're the first person I've met whose looked at my shirt and thought, 'Hey, normal people don't wear shirts with pirate symbols!' Mr. Kenneth. But you know, just because a pirate has a kid doesn't mean they turn into a pirate or support pirates," Satomi stated, one brow raised pointedly at Jones.

"I never said anything about being her kid. Just related to her," Jones said with an almost knowing smile on his face. Satomi just rolled her brown eyes at him. Leave it to her to choose the wrong wording. She should have thought her words through better.

"Whatever. You know what I mean. I'm not related to the lady. Now what's your second question?" Satomi asked impatiently, determined to tell the strangely polite and nosy man.

"Well, I was just wondering how a pretty girl like yourself got a cut like that on her cheek?" he responded, placing his hand gently on her cheek and gently wiping the blood that had been sliding down her face of with his thumb. Satomi jerked back and swallowed, her face reddening again in embarrassment and nervousness. If she were a normal girl, her face would have reddened for no reason other than the fact that they thought he was flirting with them, but Satomi would have none of that. In Satomi's pessimistic mind, men couldn't flirt with her, and Jones' behavior was only to make her feel uncomfortable or in hopes of getting her to answer quicker.

"Uh, please don't do that ever again," Satomi stated, brown eyes wide as she looked the man in the eyes. The man just smiled, seemingly unaware of her discomfort.

"Of course, my apologies if I have somehow offended you," he offered another little head bow, and Satomi's eye twitched slightly. Did he not understand the ever so basic concept of personal space?

"Ah, anyways… I'm just a bit of a klutz is all, as seen by my ungraceful collision with you. That's pretty much it. Nothing else really… that's all there is to this little cut," Satomi lied through her teeth evasively. She had experience with lies, and it was no trouble for her to lie to a complete stranger. Jones quickly wrote that down as well.

"I see. Well, thank you, Ricky's is right over there," Jones pointed to a building just to their right, and Satomi felt like even more of a moron. She could have avoided almost all of that awkwardness if she had been just a little more observant! Her eye twitched almost violently, before she turned back to Jones.

"Thanks…" Satomi said, before sighing heavily, "I'll just be on my way. Goodbye."

"Goodbye Miss Satomi. It was a pleasure meeting you," Jones stated, smiling pleasantly at her as he watched her run off, although there was a small glimmer of suspicion in his oddly colored eyes.

Satomi couldn't shake the feeling that, despite her vague responses, she had just given him some sort of valuable information, and that she had just been used. Not to mention he had thought flirting with her would have made her easier to get information out of! How egotistical could a guy be?! She had to brush her thoughts away and save them for later, however, as she entered Ricky's to see a surprising and unsettling sight.

* * *

Kenneth Jones was a man of ambition who wanted only two things in life besides his girlfriend: The honest truth and recognition. He had a knack for seeing through any lie, and it had been an important asset in his career as a Journalist for the Southern Star Newspaper.

Currently, Jones and his girlfriend, Sabine, were both on Tango Island, so that Jones could pursue a lead that the Marines of this island could possibly be corrupt. Jones was ecstatic, because if he could get his article published, it could be a huge eye opener for the public. The poor, innocent, naïve little public. Just earlier that day he and Sabine had been in Ricky's, eating a very tasty lunch while Jones read his newspaper, but had been swiftly pulled out by Sabine so that they could attend an execution. Jones had somehow managed to leave his paper in the booth, and since he hadn't been able to finish reading it, he had been on his way back to grab it. So what if he missed the execution? Sabine would be there, and she could give the journalist all the information he might need.

What he had seen when he entered Ricky's was not something he had expected. Sitting in the booth he had been sitting in earlier was a young man, but that wasn't really the surprising part. The surprising part was the fact that Commander Strand was pointing a gun at the sitting man's head.

"Not only was that woman a pirate, but judging be her hair color, she's also the daughter of Silver Suzu, The Siren of the South, also the woman who gave me this scar," Jones overhears Strand saying, and his interest was piqued, his missing newspaper a distant thought.

Suzu the Siren had gone missing years ago, and well known as one of the vilest, most evil woman in existence. The pirate had been a member of Gol D. Roger's crew for a short time, before leaving to do some solo work. If that women's daughter was on the island, and she caused trouble, then Jones was sure he could make front page with his article.

"So, I guess this means I'm dead?" the man, who appeared to be a marine, asked, making eye contact with the Commander.

"Oh yes, Warrant Officer. You. Are. Dead." Strand tightened his finger on the trigger, but before he could shoot, a man shouted to get his attention, startling him. He jumped, accidentally pulling the trigger. Jones' eyes widened as he watched the bullet whiz past the Warrant Officers head, just barely missing him. 'And that,' thought Jones to himself, 'was luck.'

"Commander Strand, we found him," a marine shouted, apparently too stupid to realize he was interrupting something you don't generally interrupt unless you have the balls to deal with the consequences. Jones watched with a mixture of amusement and curiosity as the angry Marine Commander turned to look at the marine that had interrupted while the man that had almost died had a strangle look of terror and relief on his face.

"Found who? Who could be so important that you interrupt me?!" Strand's voice boomed throughout the room, and the marine visibly flinched. Jones almost pitied the poor fool. Almost.

"W-we found Cato." The marine's voice was shaking as he responded, and Jones's eyes widened. It seemed a lot was going on for this island if the Cato he was referring to was Cato the Canary, a relatively infamous Revolutionary that had recently finished leading a complete takeover with a nearby island.

"Cato the Canary?" Strand asked, practically taking the words straight out of Jones' mouth. The marine nodded, eyes wide with nervousness as two more marines came out of a room in the back of the restaurant, dragging a young man who didn't seem to really be struggling or fighting back in the least. Noticing this, Jones raised his eyebrows. There was no way it could seriously be that easy.

"Perfect. This'll definitely be getting me a promotion," Strand stated smugly, and Jones just smirked.

'_You're not the only one getting a promotion from an event like this,' _Jones thought to himself, just as smug. Jones jumped, startled from his musings at a loud bang. Strand had shot the marine that had interrupted him in the stomach, and blood was pooling everywhere, surrounding his body.

"B-but why?" the man gasped out, covering his wound as best he could while on the floor. Nobody moved to help him, though out of the corner of his eyes, Jones could see the Warrant Officer twitching, as if he wanted to move to the man's aid. He remained still however.

"You still shouldn't have interrupted me," Strand stated simply, before turning to the Warrant Officer. "And I'm suddenly feeling generous today. Lock this traitor up with The Canary, and call the nearest Vice Admiral to come get this damned revolutionary. We need to get headed back to the base; the execution should almost be over."

With that, Strand walked out of the restaurant, and two marines rushed forward to take a hold of the 'Traitor.' Everyone made a huge circle around the bleeding marine on the ground that was now coughing up blood and pleading for help. The Traitor didn't put up much of a fight either, but he looked to be deep in thought and Jones couldn't help but grin. He had a feeling that some serious shit would be going down, and there was no way he wouldn't be getting a promotion for it.

After all the marines cleared out, an elderly man who seemed to be the owner rushed forward to help the bleeding marine.

"Please, someone help?" he begged as Jones walked forward again, once again determined to get his newspaper and then leave.

"Sorry, Mister. Not my problem," Jones responded, and it really wasn't. As a journalist, it was his job to write down important recent events, not get involved in them. Besides, the man was half dead anyway, and and there were no doctors on this island that would be able to help. Jones had better things to do anyway, like retrieve his newspaper and find Sabine.

Reaching the booth, Jones was disappointed to see that his paper was missing, taken by someone, and all he could do was scowl. He had been half way through an article about the recently promoted Vice Admiral Milton having entered into the South Blue. He swiftly exited the building, somewhat angry with his missing paper. He had been so excited to read it!

He didn't get very far before he suddenly found himself slamming into another person, just barely managing to catch and steady them before they fell. It was a young woman, and she quickly pulled away, apologizing. They had a quick exchange, in which Jones was able to discover two things as he allowed the silvered haired woman to be on her way. Satomi was, judging by the fact he knew she was lying and her wording, the daughter of Suzu the Siren. She also wasn't as clumsy as she pretended.

Satomi had been partly right about Jones, she had in fact given him very vital information despite her vague responses, but he hadn't treated her that way because he was egotistical. He had treated her that way because Sabine always told him to treat women with the utmost respect, although Jones had a feeling that he had somehow offended her. Shrugging his shoulders, he turned to continue on and find Sabine, eager to hear what she had to say about the execution.

* * *

Tobi allowed the marines to take hold of him and lead him to the Marine Base for the simple fact that fighting back with Strand around, while a possibly successful maneuver, was simply too risky. Tobi was sure he'd be able to find a way out, because he was just a lucky guy like that. He was surprised when it turned out that his waiter had been Cato the Canary, and that the marines had been able to capture him so easily, seeing as the Canary was supposed to be ferocious, and he knew the marines of Tango Island really weren't that strong.

"Sorry," one of the marines whispered in his ear as they pulled him roughly out of the booth, but Tobi understood. Tobi knew that the guy was one of the good ones, the ones who wanted to be good advocates of justice, and kind people, who were unfortunate enough to get placed under Captain Moustache's command.

Tobi just sighed, his hands having been bound, walking with as much pride as possible as he was led down the streets on the way to the base. He noticed one of the marines forcing Cato on his way seemed to have a forming black eye, so at least he knew Cato had fought back. The streets were still quite empty, so he supposed the town was still recovering from the execution of Luca, one of the town's most beloved marines.

Tobi had to admit, he was somewhat thankful for the appearance of the revolutionary, as that had been the only reason he wasn't dead. His appearance had made Strand so gleeful that he hadn't felt any sort of need to kill Tobi, which was completely major. Of course, turning in Cato the Canary could probably get him, not to mention Moustache, a promotion, and that meant the world to Strand.

"Lookie here," one of the marines said, punching Cato hard across the jaw, "The Canary is about to be caged. Tell me, what's that feel like?"

Cato grinned maliciously, causing chills to run down Tobi's spine, but it seemed the other marines were too dumb to notice. Cato's eyes had a certain look of intelligence in them that seemed vaguely familiar to Tobi, but he couldn't place it.

"Not too bad, considering its only temporary," Cato stated smugly, and Tobi had no doubt that Cato was being honest. Cato had a bounty of 35 million Beli, and he was just a rookie revolutionary, so Tobi had the simple suspicion that Cato was either screwing with their minds, or about to screw with their lives.

"Ha! That's what you think," the same marine responded, but Cato didn't respond, just continued to grin. The marine, angry with his lack of response, punched him again, and it was then that Tobi realized the procession of marines had stopped moving while the two had their exchange. Strand was up ahead, having not realized they had stopped moving. Cato's lip began to bleed, but he really didn't seem to mind.

"Enough," said another marine, "We need to keep moving and get to the base."

There was tension in the air so thick that Tobi was sure that if holding a sword wasn't a safety hazard for himself, he could literally slice the air into substantial. Cato continued his malicious little grin, his brown eyes tainting the marine to do something stupid. Apparently the marine wasn't missing too many brain cells, however, as he just continued with his walking. It was at this point that Strand seemed to notice the fact that they had stopped and turned to look at them from a very long distance ahead.

"Get your asses moving!" he shouted, and they all quickened their paces. Cato continued his smug, malicious smile, but he seemed focused on something else. As they walked, Tobi accidentally caught his eye, and the revolutionary seemed to give him a smile. An actual smile! Within seconds, however, it was back to being the scary grin it had originally been.

* * *

They quickly reached the base and the two criminals were placed in cells, their hands bound, and left so that the marines could carry on with their day. Tobi frowned when he noticed it was just him and the revolutionary, but he just sat against the wall, trying to finish out his plan of escape. He closed his eyes to continue his thought process.

"So… pickles, huh?" The revolutionary began, an amused tone in his voice. Tobi made a huffing sigh, but kept his eyes closed as he responded.

"I don't even know why I asked for a pickle. I hate pickles, and I was in shock," Tobi said calmly, though his thought process was being distracted. Why did this guy sound so oddly jubilant?

"Then why did you eat it?" Cato seemed genuinely curious.

"Because Satomi said she'd pay for it, and it had already arrived by the time I'd realized what I'd done," Tobi answered annoyed. He really did hate pickles, but he hadn't wanted to be mean.

"Ah, that's right. The pirate woman, Suzu's kid," Cato seemed completely calm, as if the possibility of Suzu the Siren having a daughter wasn't the least bit unnerving. Personally, Tobi had to wonder who would be dumb enough to have a kid with a woman as volatile as the Siren, but whatever. To each his own, right?

"So you heard that?" Tobi asked. They couldn't have possibly been that loud when they were discussing it, could they've been?

"Yeah, when I was serving a table right next to yours, that's probably when they heard the conversation," Cato said, and Tobi frowned. He figured he wouldn't be getting that plan figured out, because now he was completely distracted. He opened his eyes to look Cato in the eye.

"Well, why wouldn't he have arrested all of us on the spot if you guys heard that early in the conversation?" he questioned, staring the older man in the eyes. Cato crossed his arms.

"That's probably because they think she's gonna be as troublesome as Suzu and they wasn't to prepare as best as possible for her capture. Those damned marines have the lowest opinion of anyone that could even have the slightest traces of criminal in their blood. It's pretty annoying," Cato rolled his eyes, and Tobi tried to figure out why this guy suddenly seemed so familiar. "Whatever though, she can handle it, I'm sure, if she's anything like her mother. Ha! I hope she pounds some reasoning into the lot of them!"

Tobi gave Cato a strange look. This was not what he had expected the infamous Cato the Canary to be like when he had heard about his exploits and his success at taking over Shreevie Island. Cato noticed the look.

"Something wrong?" he asked, wondering if he had perhaps done something wrong.

"Well, it's just that, you're not really what I expected," Tobi mumbled, unsure if he was supposed to be completely honest.

"Oh? And what, pray tell, did you expect?" Cato questioned, staring him in the eye, and Tobi had the slightest feeling he had offended the supposedly powerful revolutionary.

"Well, s-someone a little more dignified and, uh, regal? Not to mention someone who wouldn't be captured so easily," Tobi decided to just be honest, because he really wasn't that good at lying.

"Well fine then! Be that way, I only let myself get captured as a distraction so that they wouldn't kill you," Cato snapped, looking a little miffed, and Tobi decided to remember that he seemed to offend easily. Then Tobi backtracked to process what he had just said.

"Wait, you got captured on purpose?!" Tobi tried his best not to shout, glancing at the bars to their prison and hoping none of the marines on the base had heard him and decided to come check on him. Cato merely nodded and shrugged, and that was when Tobi noticed something else about the revolutionary.

"Wait, weren't your hands tied up too?" Tobi questioned, realizing that his hands were no longer bound and that the rope that had once tied the revolutionary's hands was lying on the floor next to him. How had Tobi not noticed that earlier?

"What? I happen to be a powerful revolutionary; you can't honestly expect me to just let myself get caught without a plan, can you?" Cato mocked offense this time, waving his hands around in a falsely offended manner.

"So that means you're gonna break us out, right?" Tobi asked excitedly. If that were the case, then that meant he wouldn't have to find a way off the base, and that excited him. Cato shook his head.

"Not us, just me. I can only get myself outta here. I'm not just leaving you here though. If Satomi's anything like her mom, she'll come bust you out the moment she hears you're in here," Tobi blinked once at this response, and then went to protest. However, before he could protest, Tobi watched the strangest thing he had ever seen in his entire life occur, and that was saying something.

Tobi watched in shock and horror as Cato's body seemed to shrink and grow what Tobi could only assume were feathers that same shade as Cato's very blonde hair. His face seemed to transform into a beak, and his arms into wings. Once the transformation was complete, Tobi was vaguely curious as to where his clothes had gone, but was more concerned as to how he had suddenly turned into a very tiny yellow bird.

"What the?!" Tobi almost shrieked like a little girl, much to his embarrassment, but he managed to hold it in. The bird hopped around on the floor a bit, staring up at him, and he could almost swear the little creatures chirping was it laughing at him. All Tobi could do was watch as it finally seemed to calm down, before it made a motion with its wing as if to salute him, and then flew through the gap in the bars, leaving him. Tobi stared after the bird, blinking very slowly.

"What just happened?" Tobi asked himself, wondering what he should do with himself. That was when he noticed a glint of light, and glanced over to see a simple pocket knife laying by the rope. He crawled over to it slowly from his position on the floor with his hands bound (It was really more of a butt scoot) and managed to turn his body to grab the open knife. He used it to slowly cut the ropes off his wrists, though he had to be careful not to slice half his hand off, as bladed items were somewhat of a hazard when within a two foot proximity of him.

Once that was done, Tobi just kinda sat on the ground, rubbing his wrists and wondering what the hell had happened to Cato. He had never seen something like that happen before, but he hoped to find out what it was soon.

* * *

The sight that greeted Satomi once she entered Ricky's was a somewhat pathetic one. There was what appeared to be a marine lying on the floor, bleeding profusely from a wound. An old man was sitting next to him, pressing down on the wound, attempting to slow the bleeding, and there was a woman on her knees near one of the back doors, her hands covering her face and her expression one of fear. It appeared to Satomi that she had dropped a plate of food around her as there were shards of glass surrounding her on the floor. Satomi gave the room a once over. No sign of Tobi.

"Please, Miss, help me," the old man said, having just noticed her. Satomi sighed, knowing she'd have to be quick. She rushed over, pulling bandages, large tweezers, and a water bottle from her bag.

"I hope this works," she mumbled, ripping off part of his shirt and then pouring water on the wound to try and remove as much blood as possible. "I'm probably gonna need some more in a minute."

The man moved to get more water, or at least that's what she assumed he was doing, and she took the tweezers. The marine seemed to be just barely conscious, but his eyes widened as she used the tweezers to try and get a hold of the bullet, which was surprisingly not that deep in his body. He let out a moan of pain, and Satomi flinched slightly. She felt pretty bad for the poor guy, because she knew from experience just how painful something like this was. Then again, she had had someone with a tad more experience than this guy did. Finally she managed to get a hold of the bullet, and she pulled it out. The man let out a pained scream, and Satomi swallowed nervously. She tried to calm herself by reminding herself that at least he had enough life in him to scream.

"Here's some water, with a rag," the old man said as he returned with a tub of water and a rag to clean the wound.

"Just in time," Satomi murmured to herself, tossing the tweezers and bullet aside, to rub her slightly bloody hands on her black t-shirt. She grabbed the rag and coated it with water, before dabbing at the wound as gently and quickly as possible, trying to clean it as best as she could. "What happened?"

Satomi listened as the man told her of the earlier events that had happened in the restaurant after she and Jack had left, and she felt anger swell in her chest. The man had shot one of his own subordinate?! Not to mention he had taken Tobi prisoner? Retribution was in order, but after she saved this man's life. If she could save his life at all. By the time the man had finished his story, she had got his wound as clean as it was gonna get and needed him to assist her in bandaging him. She had him help the marine sit up so she could swiftly wrap the bandages around his torso, making sure they were neither too tight nor too loose.

"Now then," Satomi said, standing up. She made her way to the woman who was still sitting on the floor, traumatized. She crouched down in front of her, and placed her hand gently on the woman's shoulder, "Listen, everything should be okay, Ma'am. He should be in okay health until you guys find an actual doctor to make sure everything is okay with him."

"You mean you're not a doctor?" the old man asked, surprised that she wasn't a doctor after what she had just done.

"Nope, I've just picked a few things up in my lifetime," she responded, giving him a gentle smile before focusing it towards the woman, her brown eyes searching the slowly focusing hazel eyes of the woman. "You need to relax for a minute. Come with me."

Satomi gently and slowly removed the woman's hands from her face, and helped her to stand. Satomi placed an arm over the woman's shoulder to help steady her as she helped her to a booth, maneuvering the woman so she wouldn't accidentally step on the glass. Once that was done, the silver haired woman wiped her hands on her jeans as if she had had dust or something like that on them, and turned to the old man, who was staring at her in awe.

"You probably oughta go find a doctor for both of them. The waitress lady whatever she is'll probably have some sorta post-traumatic stress or something, though I'm probably wrong. I'm not a doctor, after all, and she could just need some sleep or something," Satomi said, and she began to make her way to the door.

"Alright, but what are you going to do?" he questioned, wondering what was going on in his town. He remembered once when this town had nice marines, and nothing bad ever happened. Lately, however, it seemed as if whatever could go wrong was going wrong, and he just couldn't handle that.

"To look after myself," was all Satomi said before she was out the door, off to do what she did best. It just so happened that taking care of herself meant taking care of her important people, and she was about to add one more person to said list.


	4. Maps

A.N. So, this chapter is a little shorter than usual, but whatever. Its also kinda boring, but hopefully next chapter will have lots of beautiful action. Also, would anyone be interested if I also began a Fairy Tail fanfiction? I feel somewhat obligated to at least have as many stories as my sister on my OWN account. So, if I get any positive comments, I might do that. My sis and I also plan on co-writing a Ouran Host Club Highschool fanfic (Eventually.) Anyways, please r&r.

* * *

Jack sighed as he finally reached the boat he and Satomi had sailed around in for the previous week, mentally preparing himself for the trauma that was Satomi's rambunctious dogs. Micah had assisted him in carrying Luca all the way to the docks, and he had been able to somewhat asses Luca's condition during the short travel. Micah had done nothing to help other than carry Luca, and was actually starting to stress Jack out. All Micah seemed to want to do was worry about Luca, and ask if his brother would make it. Honestly, he was overreacting.

"Alright," Jack began, hoping the dogs wouldn't come the moment he opened the door. Then again, the only one that would have been capable of harm was Jake, and Satomi had mentioned earlier that she had placed him in the kennel. "We're just gonna take him to my room. Keep in mind that there are two dogs in here and they have the tendency to trip people no matter the circumstances."

Micah nodded and Luca frowned, obviously not happy to hear this tidbit of information. Jack opened the door to the boat's little cabin and felt relief wash over him as there was no loud barking. Jack entered the cabin with the two brothers, and took note that the door to Satomi's room was cracked open; leading him to believe that at least one of the dogs had found their way to her bed. Jack and Micah carried Luca to the door leading to Jack's room. Once the door was fully open, Jack blinked once and then twice at the image of a dog on his bed.

This dog was Shannon, the evil she-devil of Satomi's three dogs. For some strange, unfathomable reason she had taken an immense liking to Jack, and he couldn't seem to rid himself of the fuzzy monster unless he left the boat, since Shannon hated leaving to boat. Shannon was the smallest of the dogs, not to mention the meanest, most short-tempered one. She had a long narrow snout, and her brown fur was ticked with white speckles in a manner Satomi always described as 'magnificent.' Jack couldn't help but question his Captain's sanity.

When they entered the room, Shannon began to growl lowly at them, and the closer they got, the louder the growl. Micah stopped walking to just stare at the terrible beast.

"Sh-should we keep going?" Micah stuttered, nervous. Shannon might have looked innocent at first, but there was just something about the dog that was traumatizing and terrifying. Jack was sure it was something to do with her belonging to Satomi of all people.

"It's fine. She won't hurt us… I think." Jack knew Shannon liked him, but according to Satomi she was not fond of strangers.

"You think?" Luca mumbled, but they continued to move forward, albeit slowly. Jack reached his hand forward slowly like Satomi had showed him, to let her sniff his hand even though she really didn't need to. It just made Jack feel safer that way, even if Satomi had made the comment once that that would just get his hand eaten off eventually.

"Come on, Shannon," he said soothingly, reaching forward, but once he placed his hand on her purple collar, she seemed to snuggle into his covers closer. Jack scowled, know that he was going to have to make this quick, like ripping off a band-aide. Jack jerked his hand as swiftly and roughly as possible, pulling the she-devil off of his bed without incident. Shannon had the unfortunate habit of peeing when she was forced off of furniture despite being potty trained. "Now shoo, get oughta here. Go pester Harvey or something."

Shannon looked at him for a second with her big, brown, sad eyes, and he almost felt remorse, but he quickly shook it off. He couldn't let her cuteness defeat him. Shannon seemed to understand this and made her way out of the room, probably to force Harvey off of Satomi's bed, but not before giving a vicious snarl directed towards the strangers.

Jack had Luca lay down on his bed and sent Micah out to the kitchen while he worked, telling the man not to touch anything. Jack quickly set to work fixing Luca up as best he could with his limited medical supplies. They really couldn't fit a lot on their boat since it was practically a dinghy. Jack cleaned his bleeding nose which, luckily, wasn't broken. His black eye could have been far worse, and Luca's only real medical problem was his ribs. Jack personally didn't like to deal with injured ribs, but it's not like they took a whole bunch of work. He quickly came to the conclusion that they were simply bruised (which was way better than being fractured or broken).

Jack grabbed him a bag of ice to put on the ribs and some painkillers, as that was all there really was to it.

"Just keep these on your ribs and don't take them off. These painkillers should help reduce the pain from breathing," Jack handed Luca the items and help him sit up and drink water to take the pill, "You have to take deep breaths, by the way. It doesn't matter how much it hurts to take a full breath, you cannot breath shallowly."

"Is that it?" Luca asked, settling down on Jack's bed with the ice held to his right side where his ribs were injured. Jack just nodded, glancing around his room to see if he needed anything from it. Most of the stuff in the room didn't actually belong to Jack, but to Satomi, who hadn't really had time to prepare for Jack's sudden joining of her crew and still hadn't moved the stuff out of his room.

"Pretty much, yeah. I'm gonna send Micah off the ship when I leave and you'll be here alone except for my Captain's dogs. They should be able to protect you from any harm that comes your way, think you can handle yourself until after me and Satomi handle the Marines on this island? I assure you that you won't be stuck on this boat for too long," Jack informed, making his way to the door, scythe held tightly in hand.

"Yeah, but is that woman really a pirate?" Luca asked, unsure he could really believe that such a fragile looking young woman was a pirate of all possible things. Jack smirked at the question.

"I'm pretty positive. She really is full of surprises. Don't worry about her either, she can handle anything the Marines of this island throw her way," Jack stated before exiting the room and closing the door behind him.

Before Micah could say anything to Jack, the doctor slipped into Satomi's room, intending to grab her beloved weapon. Jack glanced anxiously around the room, as Satomi had the tendency to yell at him every time he entered her room. Satomi's staff was leaning against the wall right next to her small bed, glorious as ever. Satomi's staff was unusual, being made of a strange mixture of sea stone, silver, and metal. It was sturdy and Satomi was under the impression that it would never break, making it an amazing weapon. Jack secretly agreed with her, as it was made of pretty strong materials.

As Jack grabbed it and turned to leave the room, he stopped, hesitant to leave. He wasn't sure why it was so tempting to poke around her room, but he guessed it had something to do with Satomi's secrecy. For all that Satomi could talk about her likes and dislikes, as well as her family, she had never once told Jack anything of travels on the seas other than the fact that she had once been saved by a group of pirates that convinced her to become a pirate. Jack glanced around her room, looking for anything of interest. The only item that seemed even the least bit personal was a simple picture on the table at the foot of the bed.

Jack went over to the picture, examining it despite the fact he knew he wasn't supposed to be in Satomi's somewhat girly room any more than necessary. The picture had eight people in it, five men and three girls, Satomi included. They were all smiling happily, and there was a glint of something in Satomi's eyes that he no longer saw when he saw her, though he couldn't place what it was. She looked like she could have been about seventeen, so it had only been a few years since the picture had been taken.

Jack reached forward to grab the picture so that he could get a closer look without bending over, but his hand snapped instinctively back when a growling sound was heard from Satomi's bed. Jack looked up to see that it was actually just Harvey, another of Satomi's dogs, having a bad dream. Harvey was a much bigger dog when compared to Shannon, but of the same German Shorthaired breed as the female monstrosity. Harvey was black and white instead of brown and white, not to mention the oldest of the three creatures.

"Harvey, wake up," Jack said, awakening the gentle giant. Harvey snapped his head, awakening from his bad dream. He looked at Jack lazily, before lowering his head to sleep once again, unconcerned about Jack's presence in his master's room. Jack just rolled his eyes at the dog's reaction, '_Useless dog.'_

Deciding he had been lucky, and knowing that he needed to hurry up and find his captain, Jack turned to rush out of Satomi's room, closing the door behind him. Jack entered the living room/kitchen area to see that Micah was sitting on the little black couch, staring anxiously at the kennel in the corner of the room that held Baby Jake, Satomi's last and youngest dog. Jack focused his attention.

"Your brother is fine. I'm going to be heading off to find my captain, and I need you to get off this boat. You probably ought to go find some people willing to assist in getting rid of any of the corrupt marines on this island, if you're willing to help," Jack stated, although he really didn't care what the guy did as long as he got off of his captain's boat.

"Are you sure he's okay? He seemed pretty bad. Are you just positive?" the words flew quickly from Micah's mouth, and Jack just rolled his eyes.

"Positive, now get out," Jack was trying to be polite as he shooed the man out the door, ignoring his protests and attempting to quell the man's worries of his brother. Micah protested lightly, but Jack would have none of that as he gently forced the man off the boat, carrying both his and his captain's weapons as they left.

"Well, that was fun and all, but I really must be on my way. Don't worry, we'll send your brother back later today, but in the meantime he needs his rest. You should go as well, and find assistance," Jack suggested, smiling at Micah. Micah nodded slightly.

"Yeah, sure. I'll just go do that..." Micah trailed off before turning and leaving. Jack watched him head off for a moment, before going in a different direction. He had to find his captain before she got annoyed at him for being a slow poke.

* * *

Satomi was wandering the streets, frustrated. She really did need to start remembering to ask for directions. There was the slight problem that she was socially incapable, of course, but that didn't mean she couldn't try. After all, she had to worry about Tobi's safety, and that should certainly take precedence over Satomi's social terrors. She was really quite lost, and hadn't the faintest idea on how to get to the Marine Base. It took her a while, but eventually she found a group of people standing close to the entrance of a pleasant looking bookstore. They were whispering to each other in quiet, angry voices, and Satomi decided that it would be rude to interrupt, so she decided to wait until they were finished.

"I'm telling you, I thi- wait, that's her!" One of the men, who Satomi felt was vaguely familiar, suddenly shouted, pointing at her. Satomi blinked for a second as all seven of the men turned to her.

"Me?" she questioned nervously, glancing around and hoping to find that they had actually been discussing someone else. She found no one, so assumed they were indeed referring to her.

"That's the girl from earlier, the one that I'm positive can save this island," the man said, and Satomi realized that he had been a part of the group that had taken away the marines she had beaten up. Satomi relaxed a bit when she realized that, deciding nothing too bad could go wrong.

"Well it's not possible. We'll be stuck putting up with Moustache forever," another man in the group said, a frown on his face. Satomi inwardly scowled at the comment. He did realize she could hear him talking about her as if she weren't there, didn't he? The scowl left when she remembered the Marine's name, however.

"Pfft, Moustache! That is so unintimidating! Kihihi," she giggled slightly, recalling the name and wondering if the man perhaps had a moustache. Any man who went by Moustache had to have a huge moustache and long flowy hair. It just wouldn't be right otherwise.

"It's no laughing matter, girl. Moustache is strong, so you should take this more seriously and realize you're way out of your league," a different man said, a stern look on his face. Satomi frowned, offended, and raised one silver eyebrow in his direction.

"Out of _my _league? Why, my good sir, I do believe it is the other way around. I am by no means an arrogant person, and when I say I can do something, that means I can. I'm a lot stronger than I look, and unless that man has some freaky devil fruit, I can handle it, thank you very much. Your concern has been duly noted, but you oughta know there are very few things in life meant to be taken seriously, especially when it comes to me. I don't plan on worrying too much about this," Satomi looked him dead in the eye, her brown eyes showing the confidence she held in herself. She was standing tall and proud, her hands firmly on her hips in her most defiant gesture she could manage. Satomi looked like an athletic person physically, what with her tall height, but she really didn't look strong. In this moment though, she seemed to exude a strength that not many people left in the village had the energy to have any more. There was just a gleam in her eyes that stirred something with in the men, stirred their desires to fight.

"Besides, with y'all's help, I'm sure we can manage. Would you rather spend the rest of what would probably be a very short life stuck putting up with that awful Moustache man? I'm sure one last stand against him couldn't be too hard. Not to mention, I'm a pirate. It's in my nature to fight marines and I have two buddies that I'm sure are both strong and willing to fight. I doubt it'll kill you guys just giving me directions. If you're concerned about me dying or something, then don't be. If I die, then I die and that's all there is to it. The world will continue to spin, and you'll continue to breathe, so that all that should matter to you. It's not like I'll haunt you in the afterlife or something dumb and pointless like that," Satomi gave them a look as if worrying about her death was dumb, and half the men were questioning her sanity. The men glanced at each other, silently wondering whether they really should give her the directions. The man who had originally pointed her out stepped forward, smiling.

"Just take a right, then a left, another left, and then a right. Go down the third ally to your left and the turn right. If you walk another mile then take a left, you should be at your destination," he said, looking as if he had actually been helpful. Satomi just blinked, as her entire demeanor seemed to deflate.

"What?" she asked, the directions having gone right over her head. He repeated his words, and she shook her head, swear dropping slightly. "I'm gonna need better directions than that, or a map or something."

"I don't have a map," he responded, looking crestfallen that he actually wasn't going to be of any use.

"We could probably draw you one," one of the other man offered, also stepping forward, "But we'd need a pen and paper."

Satomi thought for a second, before reaching for her bag, "I might have exactly what we need right here."

She dug through her bag for a minute, pulling out at least seven pens and two pencils, and she continued to struggle with her search for paper. Silently, she was cursing Mr. Edward, the pirate who had convinced her to be a pirate. Originally, paper had been close to the top of her list of things to keep in her bag at all times, but upon finding this out, Mr. Edward had told her to find something more useful, because she would never have need for the stuff. She had naively believed him, having a certain respect for his intelligence and having never needed the paper before. As she looked to even the tiniest scrap of paper, she planned ways to yell at the old pirate the next time she saw him because of her current dilemma.

"Shoot. Sorry dudes, I ain't got any paper. Y'all wouldn't happen to have any by chance, would y'all?" she looked at them hopefully, but they all shook their heads in a negative. Satomi sighed; irked by the fact that the one thing she needed was the one thing she didn't have in her bag.

"Why would anyone carry that around?" the original man asked, and Satomi decided she would call him One until she found out their names.

"Well I used to, but then I decided to listen to an old man and stop wasting space. Apparently, old people aren't as brilliant as everyone makes them out to be!" the annoyance in Satomi's voice was quite obvious, and it made one of the men fidget. He was Four, since he hadn't spoken yet and the names Two and Three went to the men who hadn't thought she was capable of anything. She watched him fidget a bit before pulling a piece of folded paper from practically thin air, in a manner not unlike the Jones fellow from earlier.

"Err, I have a map right here," he said, offering it to her gingerly. She took it from him in a similar manner, and the other men stared at him in shock.

"Barrett, if you had that the whole time, why didn't you just give it to her in the beginning?!" Two shrieked, exasperation in his voice. Satomi chuckled slightly, obviously finding the small exchange amusing.

"No matter. If you could perhaps allow me to use it, and one of you were to circle the location of the base and our location, I'm sure I would have no trouble finding it. I'm quite good at reading maps," Satomi said, smiling lightly. She was really quite excited to reach the base, It had been a while since she'd had a good fight with anyone (The marines from earlier had been weak little morons that didn't count as an actual fight) so she was already preparing to pack a punch, though fighting with her staff would be more fun for her.

"Sure," One said, taking the pen that Satomi offered him and the map and making two circles on the map with a line following some roads, connecting the circles. "This is where we're at, and this is the base. Just follow this line here."

"Awesome. Thanks. I'll be sure to kick some major moronic marine butt," Satomi stated, grinning happily and taking the pen and map. She put the pen in her pocket, tracing the map with her eyes for a millisecond. The four men watched her for a second, when Three spoke up.

"You know, maybe we can find some other people to help fight. That way, all you'd have to worry about is Commander Strand and Captain Moustache," he offered, glancing at the other men for support. They all nodded in agreement.

"Sounds lovely. I can have my first mate take care of Strand while I handle Moustache," Satomi's grin seemed to widen a little, and she nodded. "Hopefully I'll be seeing you guys later then. Buh-bye!"

Satomi turned and moved swiftly to follow the directions on the map, her right hand raised in the air to wave goodbye. The men shouted their goodbyes back as well, before timidly moving on to find some assistance for a good old fashioned fight.

* * *

Jack was pretty mad when he realized that he had reached the Marine Base before his captain. Wasn't she the one in a rush to get into a fight? Now he was stuck holding her weapon while he waited for her to reach their agreed meeting destination. He was half tempted to take a seat in the bar just across from the base until his captain arrived and maybe have a drink, but she would complain if he did that. So Jack stood, and waited, bored out of his mind.

"Doc," he heard from behind him, and he turned to be greeted by the sight of his captain, holding what looked like a crumpled map in her hands and breathing somewhat heavily. Jack took note that there appeared to be some blood on her hands. "Sorry I'm late. I ran into a little bit of trouble and ended up lost."

"What's with the blood?" he questioned, and she looked at her hands.

"Ah, nothing too major. Long story short, Tobi is currently locked in jail with some nut job revolutionary, and you gotta save him while I provide a distraction for most of the marines on the base," Satomi informed, and Jack's eyes widened. Satomi saw the look of fear behind his eyes and knew exactly what her first mate was thinking.

"And it's not your fault, either. Tobi is going to come out of this alive and healthy Jack. You are _not _bad luck. As far as I'm concerned, luck doesn't even exist," Satomi said with a look of seriousness in her eyes. Jack looked her in the eyes, and he knew just how much she believed her own words, knew how much she thought having him around was more of a good thing than a bad thing. But he didn't believe her words, and he was confident that having him around would be nothing but trouble for both Tobi and Satomi. He really wasn't sure why he stayed around her when he was concerned he was just going to get his captain killed with his luck.

"But wha-" Jack began, but he was interrupted, by a rough slap to the side of his head.

"Nonsense, you idiot! Luck is a load of hobgoblish, and your existence is perfectly fine. Simply existing isn't a sin. Get that through your foolish brain right now. Now, give me my staff," Satomi held her hand out expectantly. Jack stared at her, agape for a moment, before he handed her the staff.

"Whatever. So what's the plan?" he asked, and she smiled.

Satomi opened her mouth to speak, when randomly a yellow bird landed on Satomi's shoulder. The two pirates stared at the canary for a second, and then Satomi's eyes twitched.

"The heck?" she mumbled questioningly under her breath, reaching her left arm across o her right shoulder and poke the bird, to see if it was actually real. The bird chirped slightly, and Satomi smiled a ghost of a smile. "Well aren't you a handsome little bird, huh?"

The bird chirped, obviously proud. Jack frowned as his mind thought of all the possible disease his captain could get from touching the bird if it wasn't clean.

"You shouldn't touch that," he said, and she glanced back at him, giving him a look that said she couldn't care less.

"It's fine. If I get sick, you can just fix me up, Doc. Plus, this bird seems pretty tame, meaning it's probably got some connection to humans, meaning it's probably clean and disease-less," Satomi said confidently, and the bird chirped again, as if in agreement.

"I think you're overestimating my abilities," Jack said.

"I think you're underestimating your abilities," Satomi said, glancing at him like he was a fool, which lessened the effects of the prior compliment.

"And you, little guy," Satomi began, turning to the bird and speaking to it as if it could actually understand her, causing Jack to sweat drop slightly, "Oughta get outta here. Humans are nothing but trouble, and you'd be better off in the skies, free, where few humans can go."

The bird hopped on her shoulder for a second, a glimmer of intelligence in its eyes. It chirped slightly, and then it was of, but just before it was gone, Satomi could have sworn she had heard a voice, a faint whisper on the wind, "Just like your mother."

Satomi blinked slightly as she watched the song bird fly off, unsure if she had been imagining things. Had she really heard that?

"You okay?" Jack asked, noticing the odd expression on her face. Satomi blinked for a second, before nodding.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Anyway, here's the plan," as she spoke, Jack nodded his head, listening to what his job would be and accepting it without question. He had a feeling things would be fine, though he wasn't really sure where the confidence came from. Once she was done speaking Jack shook his head at the relatively simple plan. She had explained it using relatively large words, probably wasting a bit of time, but she had wanted to wait a few extra moments before they started anyway.

"You ready?" Satomi asked, and Jack nodded. "Okay, let's go then. But be careful."

Jack nodded, and then he was gone, running around the giant wall that surrounded the Marine Base to the back of the base, looking for a spot where he could easily ho the wall. Satomi just stood in her spot for a second, toying with her silver, pony-tailed hair for a second out of anxiety. She wanted to rush through her plan, but she knew she had to take her time. The plan might have seemed simple, but it was always the simplest things that Satomi had the unfortunate tendency to screw up on. She hoped that for once she could just handle the situation without much incident.


	5. Battles and Crewmates

Author's Note: Sooooooo, this is late. But whatever. I've decided to start posting this story on Saturdays instead, and I'll have to forewarn you guys that this battle scene absolutely sucks. If any of you want to be nice and help me out, it would be great if you guys would give me some suggestions for attack names. I can name people easily, heck, I come up with names sometimes and I don't even have a person to put them to. I just can't name attacks. It would also be cool if some of you could suggest pirate crew names, 'cause right now the two possible name's for Satomi's crew are kinda of stupid. I'd even take a flag suggestion. I just need some help right now, especially since my creativeness has been stomped out by some drama occuring amonst my darling friends. I know I've rambled about this, sorry. Oh, and the green haired child that's mentioned at the end of the story belongs to MeatAndWatermelons. Uh, I think that's all I need to adress right now, so on with the story!

* * *

Satomi exhaled once before deciding to get ready to cause a scene. She leaned her staff against the wall surrounding the base, and got herself ready for a real fight. She removed her comfy black flip-flops and her loose black jacket, placing them in her bag. In the process she removed a piece of gum and her gloves, plopping the flavorful gum in her mouth and the gloves on each of their corresponding hands. She did her own little stretch, touching the flats of her hands to the ground and other simple stretches, the voice of her teacher lecturing her in the back of her mind over the importance of stretching even though the man was thousands of miles away. Once that was done, she hid her bulky messenger bag in between a large bush and the wall surrounding the marine base, in hopes that her items would remain safe. She grabbed her staff and then she was ready for action.

"Hmmmm, what to do?" she questioned under her breath as she stared up at the gates that were entrance to the base and attempting to pop a bubble, although she failed miserably. She wiggled her toes slightly, feeling the ground beneath her bare feet and stroked her nonexistent beard. Satomi needed to cause a distraction that would cause most of the marines to empty out of the base, but she wasn't sure how to go about doing so. She probably would have come up with a brilliant plan had something not deliberately and quite rudely snapped her from her thoughts.

Satomi was pulled from her concentrating state when suddenly she was picked up off of the ground and spun in the air for a fraction of a second, before being thrown through the thankfully open door of a bar just across the street. Her flight was ungracefully stopped when she landed on a table, breaking it and its contents as she made impact. Satomi lay there for a second, getting over the shock of what had just happened to her.

People began to crowd around her, asking her questions, but she merely ignored them as she stood, noticing that her arms and back had been sliced from the shards of broken glasses. Apparently the table had just been set, and Satomi was at least grateful she didn't get any food on her. Satomi had to remove a few pieces of glass from her back and right arm, and reminded herself that she wouldn't be able to let Jack treat any of the wounds on her back. At that thought, her anger seemed to rise and she felt angry with whatever self-righteous jerk thought it was cool to attack someone from behind. Satomi muttered a quick apology to the person that had been seated at the table, not even taking note of the person's childlike appearance or bright green hair, her attention solely focused on finding the punk who had thrown her so she could teach him a thing or two about honor.

Satomi swiftly made her way to the doorway, her adrenaline already masking the pain, though she knew she'd be feeling it in the morning. Once she made it to the door way, she peered out, taking in the sight of a short, overly muscular man. He was bald, and Satomi automatically noticed that he was so hairless, he didn't even have eyebrows. He was making an angry expression her way, and Satomi knew right off the bat that he was a marine, and not necessarily as lame as the others.

"And who might you be?" she questioned as she strode forward, her head held high. She wasn't going to let the snobbish marine before her think even for a second that she was feeling any pain, because she really hadn't. The marine puffed his chest out proudly when he heard her question, and responded with great confidence.

"I am Marine Captain Moustache, and I'm going to arrest you," he informed arrogantly, causing Satomi to roll her eyes in exasperation. Why did she always have to deal with annoying arrogant whack jobs? She supposed that was just how her life. Of course, that was when she realized he was supposed to be the infamous Moustache.

"Wait! You're Moustache? Shouldn't you have a moustache or something?" she asked, though she knew full well that he didn't really need a moustache. She was just hoping to tick him off before the fight. Satomi grinned when she saw both the anger on the captain's face and the marines that seemed to be trickling out of the base, prepared for a fight.

"You know what? Just because my name is Moustache does not mean I have to have a moustache!" he shouted, and Satomi smirked at his annoyance. She agreed with him completely, but again, he didn't need to know that. She watched as his face began to turn a very noticeable shade of red.

"Well, the least you could do is have arm hair," Satomi said, one silver eyebrow rising in a mocking gesture. This seemed to make the Captain angrier, and Satomi couldn't help but think he was a rather simple man.

"Why you…" he seemed to be struggling to keep himself calm, much to Satomi's amusement, "Let's see how smug you are when I toss you into my cells and imprison you."

"Just try," Satomi challenged, sliding her right leg back and bending her knees, as well as moving her staff in front of her body. She was totally ready to dish out a butt-kicking. Her brown eyes roved between the Marine Captain and the grunts standing behind him, wondering if she really could handle them all. She knew she could handle the captain, and she knew she could hand the grunts, but she wasn't sure she could handle both. She wondered if maybe the captain would tell them to fire while he was still standing in front of them in hopes that maybe he would accidentally be hit, but she figured that just wasn't how her life worked.

"I plan on it," the captain began, backing up so that he was behind the crowd, "Fire men!"

Satomi rolled her eyes when she realized that all she had to do was stand still to not even get nicked by a bullet. Talk about bad aim. She heaved a sigh, before suddenly there was yelling. Satomi turned and saw all four of the men that had helped her in her map situation, as well as about fifteen armed men, all looking ready to fight. She wasn't exactly sure how she felt about the sight, but she figured it was probably good they were offering her help.

"Hey! We brought help!" One of the men shouted, and she recognized him as two. She glanced at the crowd of marines to take note that there were probably around thirty of them. That meant that the group of civilians was just a little outnumbered. Satomi wasn't sure she wanted to allow them to fight in those circumstances, but her worry was lessened when Tobi came bursting from the gates. Then again, he came alone, so she quickly became concerned for Jack.

"Satomi!" He shouted, and she focused her attention at him, while many of the marines and civilians began to clash, "Jack's still inside. He's fighting Commander Strand. He sent me out here to help!"

"Alright, I'm handling Moustache. You just make sure the civilians are alright, and beat up some marines for me, 'kay?" she requested from Tobi, and he nodded in agreement.

"So you think you're gonna handle me, Pirate Scum?" Moustache asked and she turned to see he was closer than he had been. Satomi smirked confidently at him.

"I do. I'm in a bit of a bad mood now since you so rudely through me into that bar, so I think I'm gonna get a little retribution," Satomi informed, racing forward, aiming to jab her staff into his stomach. Moustache moved to the side quickly, but his face was met with the bottom of Satomi's foot as she kicked him.

"Turning Kick," she mumbled under her breath so she could keep up with her fighting sequence mentally.

"You're getting retribution? I think I should be the one getting retribution for all the lives that your mother ruined," Moustache snapped snidely, and Satomi scowled angrily at these words.

"That crazy woman wasn't my mother! My mother was a doctor named Jane, and my hair color happens to be a mutation!" Satomi snipped defensively as Moustache drew a sword she hadn't realized he had had and charged her. He brought it down on her head, but she managed to block the strike with her staff. They stood there for a second, trying to see if one could out last the other before they finally jumped a part.

"You're pretty strong for a little girl," the marine jabbed, and the noise of the fighting around her completely disappeared as she focused all her anger on the Marine Captain.

"You know what? You shouldn't be talking, shorty. I happen to be taller than you, and me being a girl has nothing to do with this," She snapped angrily, racing forward again and then feigning another blow to his abdomen before twirling and maneuvering her body behind his, ramming him in the back of the head in the glanced back to see him holding the back of his head with one fist.

They made eye contact for a millisecond before he was back on the offense, racing forward and swiping at her neck with his sword. Satomi just barely managed to pull back in time, and her neck was lightly grazed. She felt a trickle of blood flow ominously down her throat, and she manually cursed her slowness.

"You are going down!" Moustache ordered, and this only increased Satomi's fighting spirit.

"I'm a pirate, stupid. I can do whatever I want. That means if I don't wanna go down, I don't have to," Satomi responded tartly, as they began a dance of attacks and blocks. They moved swiftly, each attempting to overpower the other as often as possible. Moustache landed a few blows on Satomi, who had unfortunately underestimated her opponent's physical strength. She knew she could win though, because while he was strong and overly muscular, she was intelligent and smart, with a temper to boot. She tried to keep her temper reigned in though, because bad things tended to happen when she got too temperamental.

Satomi finally saw a good opening, but as she went in to take it, she did the unthinkable. She tripped.

Satomi landed face forward, and just barely manage to roll out of the way of her opponents swinging sword. That didn't seem to matter, however, because as she began to maneuver herself into a standing position, she noticed the sword at the tip of her throat.

"Sit," Moustache commanded, but instead Satomi finished standing.

"In case you hadn't noticed, I don't take orders well. I'm a pirate after all, the only thing I want is freedom, and as it happens, I'm very good at getting what I want" Satomi informed snidely, a calm demeanor on her face. Satomi realized her heart should have been pounding a mile a minute, but instead it was completely calm. There wasn't an ounce of panic in the pit of her stomach, and her heart was beating calmly. Her thoughts were clearer, sharper, than ever before.

"Oh, shut your mouth you filthy freedom fighter," Moustache said, and Satomi stuck her tongue out at him childishly. "Do you think this is some kind of game?"

Satomi grinned cruelly at this, and Moustache couldn't help but relate it to the image of a man he had once seen on a bounty poster, the grin cold and knowing, but otherwise completely uncaring. Out of the corner of her eye, Satomi noticed the people from the bar were filing out one by one to watch the fight between the marines and citizens. A few of the men even joined in, although some were off duty marines.

"What makes you say that?" asked Satomi, her demeanor entirely different from before.

"You act as if you don't care about your own life," Moustache responded, digging the tip of his sword slightly into the cut already at the silver haired pirate's throat. Satomi merely smirked at this.

"Am I supposed to be afraid? If I ide, then I die. That's the end of it. At least I'll die knowing I managed to do what I wanted for the most part. I don't really feel like I have any regrets, and I'm a no name pirate, so I won't boost your career. It would really bother me if my death meant you'd get a promotion. That would be annoying," Satomi said as her entire mentality focused on pissing the marine off.

"Well, you're pretty annoying yourself, so I think I'm just going to get rid of you right here in front of the crowd," Moustache snapped back, angered by her uncaring attitude.

* * *

Jack ended up climbing a tree so he could hop over the wall and sneak into the base. He knew he should be focused on not getting caught, but most of his thoughts were focused on the fact that Tobi had been caught by the marines. Jack blamed himself, he shouldn't have told Toni they were pirates, he should have known better. Jack was nothing but bad luck for anyone he spent time with. He wasn't sure what it was that made him feel okay around Satomi, he just had a gut feeling that maybe she could survive his luck. Not Tobi though. Tobi was like his father, or Marie. Tobi would die because of him too, and Jack was pretty sure he couldn't handle that.

Jack sighed as he found a back door into the base, almost immediately running into a marine. The two stared at each other for a second, but the marine's eyes widened when he noticed the intimidating scythe in Jack's right hand.

"U-um," he began to stutter, but Jack quickly subdued him, ramming him roughly in the stomach with the end of his scythe since Satomi had the policy of not killing anyone unless necessary. When Jack noticed that the man was still conscious, though just barely, he figured he could take a leaf out of Satomi's book and see if they could tell Jack where the cells were.

"Um, they're-cough- just down the hallway on the second left. Go down the stairs and they're right there," the marine managed to stutter out, still in pain. Jack nodded.

"Alright, thanks. And uh, sorry about this," Jack said before choking him out and shoving him into a nearby closet. Once that was over with, he made his way to the stairs described to him by the marine. There were two marines standing guard, and when they saw Jack, they drew their swords, though Jack quickly dealt with them using his scythe. After they were unconscious Jack found some keys in one of their pockets and he used them to unlock the cell were Tobi was just sitting there staring up at him.

"Come on, hurry up. What's wrong?" Jack asked as he held the door wide open. Tobi blinked slowly up at him, before finally standing up.

"I've had a weird day Jack," was all he said, and the made their way back up the stairs to sneak out of the base. Jack felt like things were going pretty well until the exited out the back door of the base and there before them stood Commander Strand with a cigarette hanging from his lips. H seemed pretty shocked to see Jack and Tobi, though the surprise was mutual.

"Just what do you two think you're doing?" Strand questioned harshly, and Jack and Tobi both shared a look.

"How about we rock paper scissors this one?" Tobi suggested, confusing Strand. Jack nodded and they quickly played the well know. Jack chose rock and Tobi got paper. Tobi smirked. "Looks like you get to deal with this guy."

"Whatever. Satomi's out front fighting with the Captain guy, you should go help her," Jack suggested, rolling his eyes at the smug expression on his friends face. They always decide who had to do the hard work by playing rock paper scissors, but Tobi always seemed to win. It just wasn't fair. Jack blamed it on his bad luck.

"Go ahead and help her out, you'll end up back in a cell anyway. No one can defeat the almighty Captain Moustache," Strand said snidely, and Tobi made a quick dash for the wall, suddenly making a jump right over the wall once he got close enough. Jack rolled his eyes at his friend's actions and thought to himself, _'Show off.'_

"I don't know about that. My captain's pretty tough from what I've seen, and she does detest being told what to do, so I'm sure she'll have no problem fighting bossy marines like you and Moustache," Jack said, a bit of arrogance shining through as he got in his battle position. Strand did the same, throwing his cigarette on the grand and crushing it with his foot.

"Don't get too cocky, punk. I think it's time I taught you that the Marines always come out on top," Strand said, putting on two brass knuckles with four spikes protruding from each of them. Jack had to admit they were a little intimidating, but he doubted the fight would be too bad. He had been learning to fight with a scythe since he was a child, and he knew he was perfectly capable of winning as long as he had his scythe with him. Strand rushed forward, slicing at Jack's face, but Jack blocked, managing to land a shallow cut across his chest. Jack jumped backwards, trying to create a bit more space, before dashing slightly to the right of Strand, pretend to aim a slice at his side before bringing the end of his scythe around quickly to hit him roughly in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Jack quickly sliced him deeply across the back before deciding to end it quickly by hitting him on the back of the neck with his hand the way he had seen Satomi do so a few times before.

"The Marines always come out on top, huh? I think you might have just been a little bit wrong," Jack said, though it was to himself because the commander was already unconscious. With that done, Jack was left looking for a way out since he couldn't just jump over wall like Tobi. He supposed he might as well just use the front gate.

* * *

The sight that met Jack's eyes was not a welcoming one. Tobi was fighting a group of marines with civilians for some odd reason, and Satomi was standing with a sword at her throat, talking to some weird looking hairless dude. Satomi was grinning evilly at him, as if she knew something he didn't. It seemed she always knew something that others didn't. That was when Satomi fixed her situation.

Satomi jumped up high, doing a backflip in the air and using the wall that was right behind her to push herself forward. She slid slightly as she hit the round, and then she was back up, all of this happening so fast Moustache hadn't had time to turn around.

Quick as lightning, Jack's silver haired captain had spun around, ramming her leg so hard into the marine captain's head that he was removed from the grown and flew about ten feet. Once he landed, he did not move again. Everyone on the street stood staring, mouths hanging open as they watched the entire scene that had just happened between the pirate and Marine.

* * *

A pair of bright green eyes watched the fighting contently from off to the sidelines. The young girl they belonged to took a rather large bite of watermelon as she sat on a crate, mentally cheering on the pirate and her strange marine friend not to mention the rebellious people. They looked like they were having fun.

"That's the girl that saved that marine from his execution, Kenny," the girl looked in the direction of an attractive young black haired woman, clasping the hand of an equally attractive red haired man as she spoke excitedly. The red haired man seemed to study the fighting before him, wrapping one of his arms around the woman's waist.

"I met her earlier. She's the daughter of a well-known pirate. I'm interested in her," the man informed her, and it amazed the child how the couple didn't even realize how close they were to her. They did not speak again, as if the two were in silent agreement to not share any more information in public. Had they actually noticed the child? She didn't really think so.

The fight didn't really seem like much to the green haired child until the silver lady performed a wicked cool move by jumping over the hairless marine and the kicking him super hard. The child jumped off of the crate, grinning and humming to herself as she walked off headed for the docks. She knew her next destination, and she was excited to get there. All she had to do now was pack and hop on her new boat, and then hopefully she would soon be on her way.

"Yay! This is going to be so fun!" she said happily to herself, tossing the green outer part of her now finished water melon carelessly to the side, clapping slightly before heading further down the road, fantasizing about the future.

* * *

Satomi was pretty surprised when at least half of the marines dropped their weapons and surrendered. The others were quickly handled, too frightened of her to think properly. Satomi wasn't sure what the big deal was, but apparently about ninety-five percent of the village was happy to be rid of Moustache and his men. The men were quickly tossed into cells, and any of the good marines left were to take care of the base until the higher ups decided what to do.

Satomi and Jack had quickly told the townspeople to leave them be, and they had somehow managed to buy all their necessary supplies, at noticeable discount. Jack got Luca back to his family in one piece, and the marine that had been shot in the stomach was fine, just sleeping, much to Satomi's relief. At one point though, Satomi actually threatened to beat people up, simply so that she could get it through their heads that they were, in fact pirates. Finally though, Satomi was on her way back to her ship at the docks with Jack, Tobi accompanying them.

"So I guess you guys are leaving?" Tobi asked slowly, hesitant to see Jack leave after such a long separation from him. Tobi was trying to tell himself that everything was going to be okay now, because they wouldn't have a corrupt man in charge any more, but this didn't seem to make him feel any better.

"Yeah, I guess. We have to get moving, because we have a lot of positions that we need filled in the crew," Jack responded, also in no hurry to leave behind his friend. Satomi rolled her eyes as she noticed this, telling herself that since they were dudes, they secretly wanted to be mushy about this but felt they had reputations to keep up. Boys were morons.

"Well, I've been thinking recently that it would be nice to have a martial artist on the ship. I hear they're pretty handy, and strong too," Satomi said, smiling happily as the two men beside her stopped and stared at her.

"I was thinking it would be nice if you would join, Tobi. You and Jack get along well, and I can guarantee that if you join my crew, we'll run into 'Black Night' Lane on numerous occasions. You'll have plenty of opportunities to beat him in a fight and prove your strength. Not to mention, I myself am a skilled user of Tae Kwon-Do, so we can help each other with training and stuff. You don't have to, but it would be nice," Satomi informed, smiling at the stunned duo. Then Tobi grinned.

"Yeah. I'll be labeled a deserter though. How about I go grab my stuff quickly and then come back and meet you guys at your ship. Then we can leave," Tobi suggested, and Satomi easily agreed. Tobi and Jack high fived each other.

"All right man, you're part of the crew now. Way to go," Jack said happily, and they all split ways so they could hurry and get traveling. They waved bye to Tobi as he headed back in the direction of the village even though they knew that they would be seeing him again son.

"Well, he accepted that quicker than I expected. I thought I was gonna have to sweet talk him into that," Satomi said as she and Jack walked casually to their boat, carrying their new supplies.

"Well, he only joined because of my dad, he really wasn't that dedicated to the whole thing," Jack replied as they reached the ship and just kind of tossed everything in the kitchen before the two prepared the ship for sailing so they could leave as soon as Tobi returned to them.

"Well, I'm glad. We have one more crewmate and we've already beat up some Marines. Now all we need is a name and a pirate flag. Things are looking up, Doc," Satomi said with a smile, and Jack completely agreed.


	6. New Members

Author's Note: Alright, I'm giving my thanks to Master Caxe for helping me out, as well as MeatAndWatermelons for the beautiful character she's letting me use! I hope y'all like this chapter, also, reviews are always appreciated, not to mention I love advice. I really do. It's some handy business. Feel free to point out any errors you guys might notice. Anyways, I don't think I have anything else to say to you guys, so here you go.

* * *

"You seemed pretty eager to get outta there," Jack said to Satomi as he finished tying the last knot, meaning that they were officially ready to sail and all they had to do was wait on Tobi to join them. Satomi shrugged noncommittally.

"They said a Vice Admiral had originally been called in to catch some Revolutionary dude, who apparently escaped by the way, and I figured we weren't quite ready to be dealing with a Vice Admiral," Satomi informed, the logic seeping into Jack's mind. Jack accepted the information, not realizing that that was actually only part of the reason Satomi had wanted to rush out. Not only did she think they weren't ready to deal with a Vice Admiral, she was pretty confident she wasn't ready to deal with Vice Admiral Milton, the one that was specifically supposed to pick up whoever the Revolutionary fellow was.

"Well, wait here while I go grab some stuff and then I can take a look at your cuts," the doctor ordered, referring to the injuries that Satomi had obtained during her fight. Satomi nodded but sighed once her friend had entered the cabin of their little ship, not sure how she was supposed to go about telling him he wasn't allowed to treat her back. He would not be happy to hear that.

When Jack returned, Satomi was met with the sight of two of her dogs as well. Harvey and Jake, her boys, had rushed out the door to join them on deck, nearly tripping Jack as they forced their way through the doorway. Satomi smiled at the sight of them, knowing that Shannon would refuse to come outside unless she was forced outside. Shannon didn't much like nature, apparently.

"Hey there Harve, Baby Jake," Satomi cooed, bending down to scratch at their square heads, marveling at how adorable her dogs were. Satomi was a dog person. Jake lunged forward, his tongue lolling out as he tried to lick Satomi with his wet tongue. Jake was bigger than Harvey, despite being far younger, and was brown and white with the same ticking type pattern to his coat as his parents. Despite being the offspring of Shannon and Harvey, two very intelligent dogs, Jake seemed to be sorely lacking when it came to brain cells, and was dumb enough to run into walls on a daily basis. Satomi said that was cute. Jack thought it made the dog just a little too dumb.

"I figure we should wait out here until Tobi gets here, which means I'll have to treat your wounds out here. I'll just clean up your arms while we're out here in the prying eyes of the public, and then once Tobi gets here we can head inside so I can treat your back since that'll require removing your shirt," Jack informed, and Satomi took a seat on a beach chair, Jack next to her so he could get at her wounds. Satomi blushed lightly at the notion of having to remove her shirt in front of Jack, but it went away almost as quickly as it appeared when she reminded herself that she _couldn't _remove her shirt in front of Jack. She tried not to let her mood darken at the thought of her back, and instead focused on scratching at Jake's floppy ears while Harvey lay down on the other side of the deck.

The two sat in silence, and on occasion Satomi would flinch as he dabbed or poked at her wounds. Satomi decide she would try and be a good patient since she knew how angry her first mate would be when he realized he wouldn't be treating her back. Jack happened to be a stubborn doctor. As he worked, Satomi tried to let her body relax in the breeze, taking in the salty air and enjoying the beautiful blue of the ocean. The ocean had been her home for seven years, and she both resented and loved it. As Satomi thought deeply of her time on the sea, her thoughts shifting quickly from lack of focus, she was ripped from her thoughts by a familiar voice.

"I'm back, so we can go ahead and shove off," Tobi said as he hopped onto the ship, a bag probably containing all his things tossed over his shoulder. Satomi and Jack just stared at him for a second, a look of annoyance on Satomi's. Tobi stared back confusedly. "What?"

"Well, I'm the captain," Satomi said calmly, glancing back at Jack to make sure she wasn't the only one who saw the tiniest of problems with what Tobi had ordered.

"And…?" Tobi began, not really sure what they meant by this.

"Well, not that I'm one to really give orders or anything, but last I heard, it was the captain's job to decide when to leave…?" Satomi responded. She felt bad for even mentioning this, but she had become a pirate (and a captain, for that matter) for the explicit reason of not taking orders from anyone and pummeling anyone who tried to into the ground. Or that was at least one of the reasons. So she had to make sure the members of her crew were well aware of her authoritative issues. They were kinda obvious after a while of knowing her.

"Oh, sorry Cap'n. Ready to go when you are," he reworded the sentence, smirking at her and the first mate lightly. Satomi rolled her eyes lightly, though she was smiling none the less.

"Then let's get moving. We can shove off now," Satomi said, standing up and trying to move her arms around a bit even though they were bandaged and that limited the movement just a bit. The two men set about doing this activity (Which really only took a few seconds) before they decided to give Tobi the grand tour.

* * *

Cato the Canary was sitting calmly in the branches of a tree, hidden from the sight of the people of Tango Island, den den mushi in hand. He had calmly been watching the goings on of the island since his escape, staying out of the way so he could report what he saw to his superior. This event happened to involve someone his boss would be very interested in after all. Now that everything was over though, all he had to do before he could leave was call in and explain everything, be yelled at a bit for getting caught, and then be done with the island.

Cato smirked at the thought of taking to the sky again so he could hurry up and get to the next island, considering the words Satomi had said to him before as he had perched on her shoulder. Satomi really was a smart young woman, and indeed just like her mother. Not that he was supposed to have ever met Suzu the Siren. That had been completely on accident, and he wasn't really supposed to ever speak about it. It had just been too tempting to speak to the silver haired woman about her mother. Then again, she was probably considering whether she was crazy, because he had spoken in his bird form, and that was always a startling thing to experience.

"Cato? Cato answer me, you damn moron!" a voice suddenly shrieked from the communicative snail, shocking Cato so much he almost fell out of the tree. He cursed silently, before going to respond. He had completely forgotten for a moment he had called Jane.

"What's up, Boss?" He asked nonchalantly, not really caring.

"Don't you speak to me like that! You've been on vacation for too long! Get your sorry butt back here so we can get ready to take over this island. Once we're done here, Dragon says he's gonna ship you and me off to the Grand Line to work with Roswell. I wanna hurry up and get this over with, and I can't without you," the woman's voice from the other end was angry and annoyed, and Cato just grinned. He loved angering the woman. He held back the desire to mock her for mentioning that she 'needed him' since that would just get him in actual trouble, and would lead to him flirting with her even though she was like twenty years older than him. She was old. Instead, he explained what had happened on the island with no interruptions. Once he was done, she was silent a moment before speaking.

"And what's this got to do with me? The base on Tango Island is small, meaning it holds no use to the Revolutionary's, and we don't deal with pirates," Jane snipped, her tone one of utter annoyance. Cato rolled her eyes. She was totally in denial.

"You know exactly what this has to do with you, you old bat. A silver haired young woman named Satomi? I know this is ringing bells whether you're willing to admit it or not. And you've had plenty of dealings with pirates before, just not when it comes to your years as a Revolutionary. You should be proud," Cato said, a small bit of seriousness sneaking into his voice, and he could just imagine the black haired older woman sitting in some room rolling her blue eyes at him and trying to hide a smile on her face. She was so troublesome when it came to matters like this.

"Whatever," she responded, putting more force into sounding angry than was necessary, and he could hear it in her voice. The rest of the conversation was her discussing a few plans (in code, of course) and lecturing him in getting back to work on time. Once all of the conversation was finished, Cato took to the sky in his canary form, feeling the wind in his feathers as he made his way to meet up with her and the rest of the members under her command, excitement rushing through his veins. He just loved screwing with people.

* * *

Satomi and Jack had quickly and seamlessly pointed to the door leading to her room, informing he wasn't allowed to enter the room, pointed out the room he would be sharing with Jack, the bathroom which they all shared, as well as the trap-door leading to the storage in the lower parts of the boat.

"Shouldn't there be a rug covering that up?" Jack asked as he stared at the door in thought, and Satomi took his words into consideration. The rug had been scooted to the side, though she usually kept it covering the door since she kept some very valuable items in the storage room. She took this into consideration, before entering, climbing down the ladder to see if anything was missing.

Once down below, Tobi having followed since he was curious what would be down there, Satomi began looking around while Tobi stared around him in awe. On one wall there were weapons of all kinds (most of which Satomi couldn't even name) that Satomi kept since they were of quality and she had a fancy for weapons. She also figured she could always sell them if ever in need of money. There were also many odd, wooden tribal masks (all from different parts of the Grand Line) sharing the wall. Satomi actually had two similar to them hung up on a wall in her room. There were boxes full of odd knick-knacks the silver-haired girl had gathered over the past year or so, and had simple been unable to part with them. She had to admit, she was a bit of a hoarder.

"That's a lot of stuff," Tobi said, looking around the poorly lit room and trying to soak up everything with his eyes, "And everything in here is really weird too."

"Yeah, I suppose. Whatever, everything seems fine down here, we should head back up," Satomi said, turning on her heel and making her way to the small ladder that would take her back to the room that served as both the kitchen and living room. Tobi followed closely, though simply because he had noticed her carrying a small box with her and he was curious as to what was in it.

"Alright, Captain. I need to take care of your back now," Jack said, walking over with his eyebrows raised expectantly as the two made it out of the door, placing the rug back over the door to keep it hidden since there wasn't a lock on it. Satomi stared at him for a second, registering the words. Her face paled slightly, and she shook her head.

"No thanks Doc, I'm good. I'll just shower to keep them clean and stuff," Satomi responded, attempting to sound nonchalantly but sounding more like a child trying to avoid getting a shot and saying they'd clean their hands so they wouldn't get the flu. The only difference was Satomi actually would shower. She was fond of hygiene.

"Sorry, Cap'n. That isn't good enough for me," Jack said, motioning her forward, though she stayed were she was, her fingers playing with the latch on the box that she had brought up with her. She shook her head once more.

"No. Sorry Jack, but not today," Tobi stared between the two, expecting his captain to lose this fight since Jack was such a stubborn doctor. However, Jack took note that this was the first time Satomi had ever used his actual name and he understood that the defiant expression on her face meant she wasn't going to back down. Having tried to argue with her before, he figured it just wasn't worth his effort. Jack sighed.

"Fine, but once you get out of the shower you need to put this cream on whatever you can reach. I guess I'll have to re-bandage your arms depending on when you're going to shower," Jack said, pulling out a tube of cream that would help the cuts heal fast and tossing it to her. Satomi caught it in the air despite the box taking up most of her ability to hold things, and grinned appreciatively at him.

"Alrighty. I'll shower once it gets darker," Satomi informed, taking the box into her room and placing it under her bed, having decided that since her room was the only lockable room on the ship (other than the kitchen/living room since it had the front door, which was lockable), and she wanted to keep the contents as safe as possible.

"What's in that box?" Satomi heard Tobi ask Jack from the other room, and she grinned slightly when she heard Jack respond.

"It's a devil fruit that the Captain plans on eating at some point or another."

"A devil fruit? That sounds kinda… poisonous," Tobi said nervously at the words, and Satomi giggled slightly. She had had to explain the strange fruits to Jack as well. They were such country bumpkins, it was almost cute.

"Actually, a devil fruit is a fruit that grants its user a unique ability. For instance, 'Fire Fist' Ace is supposed to have a devil fruit that lets him control and transform into fire. My mother once told me of a flashy fellow she once met that had eaten a devil fruit that let him split his body apart at will and have them float, making swords completely ineffective against them," Satomi informed easily, a smile on her face as she enter the room again, taking a seat at the table. Tobi digested the information.

"So basically they make you stronger? That sounds kind of outlandish…" Tobi trailed off suspiciously, wondering if perhaps his captain her trying to pull one over him. Satomi glanced at him while Jack went out on deck to do something or another, probably to keep an eye out just in case of attack. Such an event was unlikely, but possible all the same, and since Satomi was from the Grand Line, she was pretty darn paranoid about things like that.

"Believe it or don't believe it, it's whatever you want. I myself have seen a few in action. My mother had one, it was one of the reason's she was given the title 'Siren of the South'. But they aren't all they're cracked up to be either. You don't know what ability you'll get when you eat one, so you could end up with a stupid power, and when you do eat one, you lose the ability to swim. Call it foolish or fake all you want. That's all there is to it," Satomi said, pulling the newspaper she had gotten earlier at the restaurant from her bag and returning to the article she had been on. The sat in silence for a moment before Tobi finally spoke again, asking a question.

"Could one of these fruits let someone turn into an animal? Like a canary?" Satomi looked up at him, flashes of the canary sitting on her shoulder going through her mind, and then the voice she had thought she had imagined. She decided to answer his question.

"Yeah. Definitely. Why?" She felt that the answer would be important.

"Well…" Tobi trailed off, and then he went on to explain the events that had transpired after her and Jack had left Rico's, just as Jack came back in with both Jake and Harvey, an annoyed look on his face. Satomi noticed his right pant leg was darker and vaguely wondered if one of her precious pooches had peed on the poor man, before turning her attention back to Tobi while Jack went into his room. She listened carefully as he spoke of what the man had said, and about the familiar way with which she had spoken of her mother. Satomi frowned.

"Well, just gonna put this out there, but if anyone ever says anything about me being the daughter of Suzu the Siren and they aren't apart of the crew, deny it. I don't need to be getting a bounty because if who I'm related to, so I'm just telling everyone that my mother's name was Jane, since that was her alias on my island. Anyways, I can't tell you why he would have said anything like that about my mother. She died like, ten years ago, and never had anything to do with the Revolutionaries. There's no way that he could have ever met my mom," Satomi said, deep in thought. She frowned the more she thought of her mother. It was strange, the theory that had suddenly popped into her head, but she quickly shoved it to the back of her mind. There was just no way the theory was true.

"Well then, that's that. Now, what's up with that wall?" Tobi asked, pointing to 'The Wall', and Satomi grinned.

"That, my friend, is 'The Wall.' It contains the wanted posters of some of the most inspiring and terrifying pirates with bounties of thirty thousand or more. It hold the old bounties of all the Shichibukai, a.k.a. the Seven Warlords, as well as the Yonkou, a.k.a. the Four Emperors, and the Kyu no Kyofu, a.k.a. the Nine terrors. The Kyu no Kyofu are personally my favorite, since they aren't government dogs like the Shichibukai," Satomi informed happily, staring fondly at the wall. What could she say? She was a collector, and loved the posters. "One day, I'll hold the bounties of my Nakama as well, you included."

"That's… a little odd, but whatever. I don't know how you could like the Kyu no Kyofu, but that's just me," he said, and then Jack came out of his room with new pants on and Shannon. As soon as the female dog saw Tobi, she was snarling and barking something ferocious. Tobi's eyes widened in surprise, and Satomi was up in an instant, her right flip-flop suddenly and magically in her hand as she used it to swat at the dog's long snout.

"No, Shannon!" She snapped, and Shannon calmed down slightly, staring at Tobi with wide, alert eyes that sent chills down Tobi's spine. "Don't mind her she just doesn't care for new people. She'll adjust to you pretty quickly."

"What's the deal with all these dogs?" Tobi asked, slightly exasperated as Harvey walked up to him, though he very willingly extended his hand to pet the black ear on his square head. That was when Satomi realized he hadn't been introduced to her darling dogs. She grinned.

"I happen to be a huge dog person. This is Harvey, Shannon, and Jake. Harvey is old, Shannon is the she-devil, and Jake is just kinda dumb," Satomi informed as her dogs began to settle down, Shannon giving one last growl before running back into Jack and Tobi's room to hop on Jack's bed. She had taken a strange liking to Jack, much to Jack's dismay. Tobi glanced at the dogs, and Harvey rested his head on Tobi's leg in one of the most adorable manners he had ever seen. His eyes widened at that, and suddenly he felt at ease.

"Jake, get away from there," Satomi scowled, shooing the dog away from sniffing at the rug covering the storage door and pushing onto a dog bed in the corner of the room. "Anyways, I'm goin' out on deck to keep an eye on things and make sure nothing too awful happens."

"I'll come with you," Jack offered, and he began to make his way out the door with the silver haired captain.

"While you guys do that, I think I'm gonna unpack all my stuff," Tobi informed his crew, and they nodded their heads in acknowledgement.

"You have fun with that bro," Satomi said lazily, and then the door was shut. Tobi sighed heavily, considering how odd his captain was. She had seemed pretty normal at first, other than the hair color, but now, with the bounty posters and funky storage room, as well as the dogs, he was a little concerned for his wellbeing. He shrugged it off however; as he went to unpack his things, knowing that all he had to do was survive. He was sure, though he didn't know why he was sure, that as long as he stayed with Satomi, he would be able to take the title of the greatest martial artist in the world, and prove himself to his parents, as well as himself.

* * *

When Tobi had finished unpacking in the room he was sharing with Jack, he figured that he would be able to go out on deck to join his other two crewmates; however, upon entering the kitchen/living room area, he figured he wouldn't be able to relax as was originally planned. On the living room side, the rug over the storage door was off to the side, and the door was wide open, and on the kitchen side the refrigerator door was swung wide open and someone was rummaging through its contents. This was not the weirdest thing though. The weirdest thing was that the person looking through the fridge was a young girl with green hair that was a shade that reminded Tobi very much of an avocado. He was sure something was wrong with this image.

Upon hearing the footsteps, the girl pulled her head from out of the fridge and she looked at Tobi, Her eyes were also green, and they made eye contact for a moment before Tobi finally reacted.

"What are you doing on this ship?" he asked, an angry edge to his voice.

"Oh, hey! Can I join your pirate crew?" she asked with an overly happy tone, completely ignoring his own question. Tobi frowned at this, wondering if there was something wrong with the kid's brain.

"No way, now tell me. What are you doing on this ship?" He snapped, practically annoyed at the girl's voice, though he supposed he didn't have any reason to be. She just seemed overly annoying, and he didn't want to deal with her.

"Really? Awesome! Yay, now we're Nakama!" the girl shrieked with glee, jumping up and down slightly and clapping her hands once or twice in excitement. Tobi scowled at this, deciding the girl was off her rocker.

"Are you deaf? I said 'No'!" Tobi said, raising his voice slightly in hopes of getting his point across.

"Yeah, I know you said yes. Now, I'm Amaterasu Aki! Nice to meet you, do you happen to have any watermelons? Or sweets perhaps?" Tobi breathed in deeply at her response, and marched forward to grab the kid roughly around her upper arm, then dragging her toward the door leading to the deck, all the while listening as she yapped about sweets and asking about the other crewmembers.

* * *

Satomi and Jack both turned when they heard the door slammed open to see Tobi holding onto a little girl of about eleven or twelve years of age. When they saw this, Satomi's head titled to the side slightly, confused and wondering where the heck the kid came from.

"What's with the kid?" she finally voice both her and Jack's concerns, wondering where the kid had been hiding the entire time.

"Hey, you're the silver lady! Ha, watching you beat up that marine guy was cool! You kick butt; I'm so glad I get to be a part of your crew. Being a pirate is going to be amazing," the girl said excitedly, and Satomi tried not to let the words go to her head. She had a problem on her hands from what she could see.

"Apart of my crew?" Satomi questioned, one silver eyebrow rising skeptically on her forehead, directed at Tobi. She certainly expected an explanation from him.

"I told her she couldn't join, but it seems she only hears what she wants to hear, and seems to think she's a member of our crew. Could you please talk some sense into her? There's no way she could be a pirate," Tobi whined, shoving the girl, gently though, in the direction of his captain. Satomi and Jack glanced between each other for a second.

"This is all on you since I have to sleep with that damned dog of yours," Jack responded, referring to Shannon and how she would bark at night until Jack let her into his room to sleep on his bed with him. Satomi smirked lightly at that. She turned back to Aki.\

"What's your name, kid?" she asked; though she had a feeling she would just call the girl 'kid'. Whatever.

"Amaterasu Aki! And yours?" Aki asked, grinning happily, and Tobi wondered if the girl ever stopped smiling.

"Well, Aki, My name's Raider D. Satomi, nice to meet ya. And you want to be a pirate?" Satomi asked another question, and both Tobi and Jack frowned, sinking feelings in both their stomachs as they could already imagine how the conversation would turn out.

"That's right! I wanna be Free!" these words made Satomi smile, knowing at this point what she'd do with the kid. She glanced at both Tobi and Jack, and while Jack didn't seem to mind, Tobi looked thoroughly displeased. The cruel side of Satomi made Satomi giggle slightly in amusement.

"Well kid, welcome to the crew." Tobi let out a huge sigh of annoyance at these words, his shoulders slumping.

"But Captain, there's no way this brat can be a pirate. She's way too young!" Tobi argued, pointing a finger at the green haired child who was grinning like an idiot. Satomi rolled her eyes at Tobi's words.

"I wasn't much older than her when I hit the seas, and honestly, I should have become pirate then and there. It would have saved me a lot of trouble. Besides, if we tell her no and kick her off the ship, she'll ask someone else to let her join their crew, and I doubt they'd be as kind as us. I know that she won't stop until someone lets her be a pirate, and who better than us?" Satomi countered his argument with her own logic, and Tobi gaped slightly, unable to come up with a comeback. She had argued back pretty fast.

"But if we let Aki join the crew, she won't be of much help. She is only a child, and probably can't even fight," Jack interjected, wanting to add in his two cents.

"Well, she can serve as a cabin girl and keep the ship tidy. I'm sure one of us, or even a member we get on the way, can help her learn to fight, and we just won't let her get involved with too much fighting until we know she can hold her own," Satomi defended, wanting to help Aki. She had been in Aki's shoes before, and the fact that Tobi had said the word 'can't' around her had her slightly peeved. She didn't take well to such words, especially when they were directed at her, even if they weren't being used to describe her.

"Actually, I can use a bow and arrow really well, so I can at least do that," Aki grinned, informing the older people surrounding at her. Satomi nodded approval at that, and looked between Jack and Tobi.

"See? She won't ever be completely helpless. Besides, do you really want her to get stuck working for a bunch of perverts or creeps or something if we turn her away and she goes to ask some other pirates?" Satomi asked, glad that Aki had added in that tidbit of information.

"Well what about her parents?" Jack asked, and Tobi nodded, as if he had been the one to ask that question. Aki opened her mouth to interject.

"Actually, I ran away from home because I wanted to be a pirate since I find the thought of adventure and freedom exhilarating and my parents, who happen to be nobles, didn't agree with me," Aki was still smiling happily, and Satomi felt something inside her click. She would have to ask about the noble situation later to deal with that and any potential problems it may cause, but first she needed to get the doctor and hand-to-hand combat on board with the idea of Aki being on their crew.

"I ran away from home! When I eventually get a bounty poster, my dad's gonna flip, I have no right to turn her away. Besides, I am the captain; shouldn't my opinion be respected and appreciated by you two?" Satomi said, and in that moment, she knew she had won because Jack shrugged and she could see the defeat in Tobi's eyes.

"Can we at least have her position be 'pain-in-the-ass?'?" Tobi asked meekly, and Aki just grinned, not in the least bothered by Tobi's comment.

"Well, seems like we now have our fourth member," Jack stated calmly, and Satomi put he hands on her hips, grinning at Aki.

"Welcome aboard, kid," she stated, and Aki grinned up at her.

"Thanks, Cap'n," she responded giddily.


	7. Balloons

A.N.- I am sooooo sorry! I was going to post this on Sunday because I went to UTA band camp this week, and they've given me the Wi-Fi password the last two years, but they had a change of policy this year and wouldn't give it to me. I just thought it would be cool to post a chapter from band camp. Never again. It's just not worth it. That was only the beginning of an awful week. So I've had a bad week, and I feel really guilty, and I'm in a huge complaining mood. Part of it could be that I was actually sick at my camp and I'm still sick. But whatever. I don't have to do anything, and I'm not in any more drama. I can finally sleep at night. On the bright side (or downside depending on the filthiness of your mind) I put a relatively dirty joke in there. It didn't come out quite right, but still. I think it's funny, and that's what matters. Anyways, I hope you guys at least kind of like that chapter (which really doesn't add much to the plotline, but I'm still working out some kinks for the next arc).

* * *

Satomi and her incredibly small crew quickly found themselves inside the cabin of the boat, having to decide what they were going to do. Satomi didn't seem too excited about this, but knew she had to go ahead and get it over with.

"So where are we heading next?" Tobi asked calmly, gazing around at his new crewmates.

"Well, we probably won't be able to get anywhere we want to go unless you know how to navigate," Satomi said, appearing for all intense purposes to be greatly nonplussed. She was tossing a plum between either of her hands, contemplating whether or not she wanted to eat it when she knew that she would probably make a mess. Tobi stared at her curiously.

"Why do you say that?" he questioned, clearly confused. Jack decided to comment.

"Because she's lived on a boat since she was fifteen and doesn't know how to properly navigate," Jack said dryly, and Satomi chuckled lightly. There were lots of things she couldn't do that she didn't really care about, and navigation had to be one of the ones she cared least about, right after riding a bike. Who needs bikes anyway? Satomi certainly didn't. She had never once needed a bike, and whether her friends thought it was an important skill or not, she had never bothered to learn.

"First off, I was fourteen, and secondly, I can navigate just fine in the Grand Line. However, the navigational system used in the four blues is very different from my home ocean, so I'm unaccustomed to using the method here. Plus, compasses are stupid," Satomi responded lightly in her defense, though she didn't care about the argument. She was just bored. Aki had opted to skip the 'boring' conversation and instead had headed down to the storage room to grab her things, since she had been hiding down there.

"And you don't know how to use a compass after all these years?" Tobi asked, exasperated. Satomi had to be like, what, twenty? How had she not figured that out?

"You don't use compassed in the Grand Line. Besides, compasses are obsolete when you can look at the sun to figure out the whole north, east, west, and south thing. Navigation here isn't just using a compass, it taking in the stupid weather…" she trailed off for second before huffing indignantly, "Whatever! I don't do navigation here, and that's that."

"Well you're in luck, because they teach basic navigation skills in the Marines. But we'll still have to get a proper navigator, because I doubt I'm good enough to keep us alive," Tobi said bitterly, annoyed at his captain's incompetence towards sea travel. Satomi nodded acceptingly at his words before removing a map from a drawer in the kitchen and sliding it towards his seat at the table. She pointed a finger at one of the islands.

"I want to go there," she said simply, before turning back to head down to the storage room and see what was taking Aki so long. She quickly climbed down, seeing the bright green of Aki's hair sticking out in one of the darker corners of the room.

"What's wrong?" Satomi asked as she walked over calmly, assessing the girl who had removed her stuff from a relatively empty box. Aki turned to her, holding something in her right hand that made Satomi's face turn bright red. That was not supposed to be on her boat.

"Um, what are these? There's a lot in the box," Aki asked, her large green eyes staring curiously at her captain. Immediately Satomi snatched the tiny package from her hands and tossed it into the crate before sealing and lifting the crate.

"Balloons," she lied easily, and she hoped the color of her face didn't make Aki think she was lying. Aki nodded.

"Ah. Well then, what are you doing with the balloons?" the question was innocent, but Satomi really wanted to stop talking about the 'balloons.'

"Throwing them out," she responded evasively.

"Why?"

"Because they're… cursed. Yeah, they're cursed. Let's go with that," Satomi was usually a freakishly good liar, but the words seemed to be failing her this time as she climbed the ladder. Aki seemed too innocent to tell the truth.

"Then why did you have them in the first place?" Aki's question was logical, and Satomi thought back to her childhood. Had she asked so many questions? Yes, she had, and if she had believed in karma, she would have said that this was her punishment for being such a damnably curious child. She didn't believe in karma though, so she brushed it off.

"Well, an odd friend of mine gave them to me without thinking. Another friend was supposed to have burned them, but apparently he missed a few," Satomi scowled lightly as she thought of the pyromaniac that had failed her. He would regret this. So would his baby maker.

* * *

Once she was in the living room and heading for the deck, she realized she had startled Tobi and Jack. She really wanted the 'balloons' off her ship. Both of the men stood as she rushed quickly, wondering if something was wrong.

"What are you doing Cap-" Jack's question was interrupted as she brushed past him.

"Nothing, you lot stay here, I'm taking out some… trash," Satomi ordered lightly, leaving behind two very confused pirates as she walked through the door, tossing thee box over board and watching as the box slowly floated off into the sunset. She yawned slightly as she headed inside, deciding to go back inside and shower. She decided that since she didn't feel like making dinner, her crew could just eat fend, as in 'fend for yourself' type fend. It was a personal favorite of hers.

"You alright?" Jack asked as she shut the door behind her to see Aki standing in the room holding a small bag as well as a bow and a quiver full of arrows. The storage door was once again hidden.

"Yup, fine," she responded quickly, deciding to actually eat the plum from earlier. "By the way, I don't feel like making dinner, so you guys can just munch on whatever you want from the fridge. If any of you guys try and cook, don't start a fire. I will be most displeased if a fire is started on my boat."

The members of her crew nodded easily, and she decided to assess the locations of her dogs. She figured she just had to make sure they weren't anywhere they weren't supposed to be and then she could go off and shower. Harvey had moved on to snooze on the couch in the living room portion of the ship. Shannon was once again on Jack's bed, and Satomi knew that there would more than likely be some sort of epically stupid battle between her first mate and female dog, and she hoped she wouldn't miss it. She'd get a laugh out of that. Jake had, for once, decided to act calm and was sleeping in a funny position on her bed. That made her smile as she went to throw away her plum pit in the kitchen.

"Hey, Cap'n, I know we're supposed to be… searching for freedom and all that, but are we trying to do anything else as pirates?" Tobi asked from his spot at the table where he was eating a bowl of cereal. Satomi glanced at him thoughtfully as she closed the lid on her trash cans. Satomi actually had many reasons for being a pirate, probably more than she could count on both hands, and she really didn't feel like sharing some of them, but she had a few that she didn't mind discussing. She took a seat next to him and Jack, who was busy unsuccessfully trying to open a jar of pickles.

"There are plenty of things I want to do as a pirate. The only thing I wanna accomplish before I die is Freedom, of course, but there are others I would be more than proud of doing. Like, if we find the One Piece, then I'd be happy. I am somewhat tempted to go nowhere near that area of the Grand Line, as I would really like to avoid royalty as a general, pirate kind or not, but whatever. Obviously I would love to do everything in my power to piss off the Marines and World Government, and I'm sure that won't be too hard for us to accomplish. There are a few placed in the Grand Line I want us to visit, and stuff like that. I also want to make sure the members of my crew accomplish their own personal goals. Like I want you to beat my bro- er, Lane so that you can take his title and all that jazz," Satomi paused awkwardly at what she had almost said. It was just an awkward sentence, "I think it'd be totally awesome to score a position in the Kyu no Kyofu. I would just love to manage that."

The room was silent for a minute and everyone was staring at Satomi. Aki had stopped fiddling with an arrow where she sat next to Harvey in the living room, and Jack had paused in his attempts to open the pickle jar. Tobi's spoon was hanging humorously from his mouth, and that made Satomi smile. Without really thinking, she removed the pickle jar from Jack and skillfully tapped the lid of the jar against the table, leaving slight indentions as she spun it in her hands while she tapped. When she was done with that, she handed it back to Jack. Jack tried opening it again and was finally successful.

"Thanks," he said, then looked at Tobi's slightly shocked face and smirked. "Want a pickle?"

"Shut up," Tobi snapped, closing his mouth which had been hanging open. Satomi giggled, and Aki turned back to her fiddling, a cookie hanging from her mouth. "The Kyu no Kyofu?"

"What? They can't be that dangerous. Besides, Lane's a member of the group, so if you want to beat one of them so can I. I am the captain after all," Satomi said with a slight bit of condescension on the edge of her tone. Tobi rolled his eyes.

"But still, aren't they evil or something?" he questioned, and Jack was silently agreeing with his best friend. Satomi saw the look on both their faces and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, so're the revolutionaries, and the Whitebeard Pirates, and every good thing that opposes the World Government. You can't take everything the papers say seriously," Satomi snapped in her best matter-of-fact tone that only she could properly pull off.

"Well, they're dangerous," Jack stated.

"Yeah, and Lane's in the group. You want to beat Lane, and I was thinking it might be interesting to take out someone like Bouvier Mercedes," Satomi responded calmly, one silver eyebrow raised at the men of her crew.

"The Mistress of Mercy?!" Tobi asked, and Satomi smirked lightly.

"Of course, anyone in the organization would do, but I would prefer a fight with her. I've heard interesting things about the woman," Satomi said. She had to admit, she was pleased with the look on Tobi's face. It was rumored the woman was as powerful as Lane, but Satomi was almost positive that the infamous criminal had nothing on the powerful martial artist. Besides, she had a personal grudge against the pirate woman. "There's nothing wrong with me doing something I want to. That's part of what makes me free, right Aki?"

"You bet Captain," Aki shouted, giggling lightly, and Tobi grimaced at the sound. Satomi had brought her in on the conversation for a reason, probably because she was annoyed with Tobi disapproving of her decision.

"That's right, indeed. Anyhow, while you guys enjoy yourselves, I'm off to shower. I feel disgusting," Satomi informed with a smile, standing up and pushing her chair in.

"Don't forget the cream for your back!" Jack shouted at her as she went to the restroom, magically holding her pajamas for the night, and she brushed it off. She probably wouldn't remember if he told her a million times.

* * *

After Satomi had finished her shower and gone through her nightly ritual to maintain her wonderful hygiene, she made her way back to the living room where everyone was sitting. She still had to decide the sleeping arrangements for Aki, and she was worried about what they would do. She didn't want the poor child to have to sleep on the couch, but there were no spare beds. The pirate captain also didn't want to have to force the males of her crew onto the couch, and she felt uncomfortable leaving anyone alone in her room for any period of time. So as she plopped down on the couch, she regarded Aki from where she had remained on the floor and was bugging Tobi.

"Aki, we need to figure out where you're gonna sleep," Satomi stated bluntly, and the green eyed child turned to face her captain, the conversation that she had been deeply involved in with both Jack and Tobi revolving around pickles ending.

"What do you mean?' Aki asked, though she didn't look like she cared, which kind of confused Satomi.

"Well, I mean all the beds are occupied and I don't think you want to sleep on the couch, and I doubt the guys want to offer themselves to the couch. I'd give you my room except I don't want anyone in my room without me being there," Satomi responded, informing them. Jack and Tobi glanced at each other.

"I know I'm not giving up my bed to the brat," Tobi grumbled, and Satomi found herself slightly amused by how much the ex-marine seemed to dislike the little girl. Satomi tucked her silver hair behind her right ear, and scratched her chin in thought.

"Well I can just share a bed with you," Aki said to her, and Satomi's eyes widened in surprise at the girl's bluntness. Aki just stared pointedly at her while Satomi considered the 'suggestion' that was really a statement. Satomi really had no problem with the idea, since the girl probably wouldn't get away with poking around in her room, as Satomi was a light sleeper and good at keeping a watchful eye. She didn't mind in the least actually, but Satomi didn't ever expect other people to ever be willing to do such things. It wasn't like there wouldn't be any space either, because Satomi's bed was large enough for the two of them.

"Alrighty, sure. As long as it's all good with you," Satomi nodded, agreeing, and Jack frowned.

"So she gets to go in your room?" Jack wondered, slightly offended. Satomi raised an eyebrow at the doctor.

"Dude, you're a dude. I find it awkward for you to be in my room. Get over it," Satomi responded, giving the black haired man a pointed look. Jack just shrugged. Satomi also knew that if he were in her room, he'd snoop. He was a curios person when it came to her personal history, something she felt irrelevant. When she needed to, she could tell them her story, but until then, it was her story to hide and her story to reveal.

"In that case, now that everything's settled, I'm going to bed. You can get in bed whenever Aki. The closet and bottom two drawers are all yours for your clothing, and you can just put anything else on the ground and we can deal with it in the morning," Satomi stated lazily, forcing herself to get up and move to her bedroom. "'Night everyone."

"'Nigh Cap'n," Jack said.

"Sleep tight," Tobi threw in.

"Alright Captain," was Aki's response to Satomi's information, and then Satomi was gone off to her room, tired and ready for sleep. It wasn't until Satomi was almost completely asleep that she remembered she had not put on the cream for her back, but she brushed it off as unimportant. Then she smiled as her last thoughts for the day were that poor Jack was going to have his hands full with trying to keep her healthy.

* * *

Back in the living room, where the three pirates sat, Aki decided to ask some questions. She was, after all, a bored twelve year old girl, and liked to be occupied. She went to ask her question, but was first interrupted.

"What was Satomi's deal earlier anyway?" Jack asked, and though it was more to himself than anything, Aki figured she'd respond to the doctor, who had just begun munching on an orange. A slight flash of annoyance passed through her at the horrid color, but she held in her feelings of repulsiveness, which were directed to the sight of her least favorite color. She hated orange.

"When she was throwing out the balloons?" Aki questioned, referring to when her captain rushed out with the box, and making sure she had the right event. Tobi and Jack both looked at her.

"Yeah… do you know something about that?" Tobi questioned, almost unsure if he actually wanted to know the answer when it had something to do with the 'little brat.' Aki nodded lightly, a grin on her face as usual.

"Yup. Satomi said she had to throw out some cursed balloons," Aki informed nonchalantly, as if that wasn't the oddest sentence she had ever said. The sad thing was, it really wasn't the oddest thing she had ever said. Not that her brain registered what was odd and what wasn't. Tobi and Jack glanced at each other, thoroughly confused. Jack frowned.

"Um, Satomi doesn't believe in stuff like that," Jack said, not sure what to make of what his younger crewmate had just said. Satomi didn't believe in a lot of things, and curses were on that list. She didn't even think Devil Fruits were technically cursed. Jack honestly didn't understand the way his captain's mind worked.

"Well apparently you're wrong, because when she saw the balloons in their packages, she looked very nervous," Aki said, very matter of fact manner. She looked like she wasn't going to give in to this argument. Jack and Tobi glanced at each other again, this time very skeptical about the entire ordeal. "By the way, is Trojan a good brand of balloon, or do you think that's what makes them cursed?"

At Aki's curiosity both Jack and Tobi turned a bright red, no longer wanting to have this conversation with the naïve little girl. They looked anxiously at each other and then back to Aki, whose green eyes were wide with anticipation of an answer.

"That's definitely wh-what makes them cursed," Tobi stuttered out, not sure of how else to answer without going to places in the conversation he did not want to go to. Especially not with Aki. He wasn't sure why, but he really didn't like Aki.

"Oh, okay. I'm going to bed then," Aki responded, getting up and going to Satomi's room to sleep. When the door closed, Tobi and Jack looked at each other awkwardly.

"Satomi didn't strike me as… that kind of woman," Tobi said, almost disturbed at the thought. Jack raised an eyebrow at that, surprised Tobi would actually think that about their captain and shook his head.

"She's not. Apparently she had some friend with some… problems and when she tried to help the woman, I think her name was Candace or Cadence or something with a C in it, gave all of the stuff that helped encourage her problem to Satomi. Satomi said she got rid of all of it, but apparently she hadn't," Jack informed, too bad at remembering people's names to recall what the woman's name was. Tobi stared at him for a moment.

"We have an odd captain," he responded simply, and Jack nodded in agreement.

"She likes to say she has, and I quote, 'diverse interests,' and if you've seen that storage room you'd have to agree," and Tobi did agree. His captain did have a lot of interests from what he'd seen. After a moment, Jack released a sigh and stood up.

"Alright, it's getting kind of late, but Satomi's got some sort of what she calls a vendetta against not having someone keep watch during the night even in the South Blue where it's safer than the Grand Line. I usually take first watch and then she gets me when she thinks I've been up enough, so you'll probably have last watch. I'm going to go relax on the deck, but you probably ought to go to bed," Jack told his best friend and crew mate, and Tobi nodded.

"Will do. I should probably listen to you anyways, since you seem to be my superior," Jack grinned and smirked at Tobi, but otherwise didn't respond, instead heading outside with Shannon (much to his displeasure) so his Captain wouldn't get annoyed, because she was pretty annoying herself when she was annoyed.

Tobi did go to bed at that point, wondering how the hell he was supposed to survive with a crew like this, but not overly bothered. He'd be having some fun pretty soon.


	8. Womanizing Old Friend

Rirry-chan: Yeah, this is kinda late... oh well. At least it's here. It seems that the summer has destroyed any form of ambition ever built up within me. All I ever want to do is lay on my bed and stare up at the ceiling. I don't even feel like using my pool, which really should be a sin considering I live in Texas. Although, it surprisingly hasn't been all that hot lately. Whatever. Anyways, feedback would be nice. I'd like it if you guys would tell me what y'all think of the story so far , or the characters, and if y'all could give me some constructive criticism? Is it sad that as I'm sitting here typing this, I'm really kind of positive y'all aren't going to give me any feedback? Whatever, I'm giving optimism a try. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter, R&R please?

* * *

Satomi stretched her arms in the air from her position on the couch before quickly snapping the book on her lap shut. She had just finished it and figured she'd just toss it onto her bed and join the rest of her crew out on the deck of their tiny little boat. She frowned at the thought as she moved silently towards her room, knowing she would soon have to fix the boat problem. The boat they were currently living on could only hold so many people, she would soon need to buy a true ship, but she still wanted to have enough people to properly handle having a ship. She figured one more member and she'd have the crew head straight for Citrus Island, an island known for its shipwrights and citrus fruits in the South Blue.

The silver haired captain easily tossed the book on her bed, and considered a moment the fruit she had hidden beneath her bed. She had been thinking about the fruit a lot lately, and she was pretty sure she'd be eating the fruit soon. Not today though. She turned, trying to tuck her hair behind her hair though the act was pointless as it wasn't in its usual ponytail, as she had opted to wear her wavy hair down that day. She went straight for the door.

"Hullo, my darling Nakama," she said as she walked through the door to the deck, her feet bare against the warm wood of her boat. Her three crewmates glanced at her and both Jake and Harvey got up from where they had been lying uselessly to get attention from their mistress like the good dogs they were. Or at least, sort of good dogs. Jake still tried to eat shoes on occasion. And Den Den Mushi. He meant well though.

"Hey Cap'," Jack said in greeting, and she smiled at him, walking over towards Aki and joining her green haired companion on the ground while Jack continued rubbing Shannon's ear from the only seat on the outside of the boat's cabin. "Do you want my seat?"

"Nah, I'm all good dude," she said calmly, smiling thankfully at him for his kind offer before turning to Aki, "Hey kid, what's up?"

"I'm staring at the clouds," she said, her ever present grin just as large as usual. Satomi vaguely wondered if it hurt to smile as long as that girl did, but she didn't bother to try, "Those clouds over there look like the Hoof of the Flying Dragon."

Immediately Satomi burst into a fit of coughing. That comment had completely thrown her off. She looked at Aki with wide brown eyes, taking in the fact that Aki seemed very unfazed. However, not many people knew about the symbol the Tenryuubito used to brand their slaves except Tenryuubito themselves, their slaves, and daughters of pretentious old men who liked to gripe about reasons the World Government was stupid for putting up with the Tenryuubito. Satomi highly doubted Aki was either of the last options. Satomi paused for a minute, before responding.

"Are your parents Tenryuubito?" Satomi questioned, and Aki looked at her with that smile of hers.

"Yup." Her response was simple, because at the word Satomi's entire body tensed. The captain had to take a few moments to calm her body of the anger that was suddenly flowing through her veins, and remember not to be too prejudiced against the girl. The girl who also happened to be her crewmate.

"Well then, shouldn't you be on Mariejois in the Grand Line?" Satomi asked, trying to look and act nonchalant.

"My parents took me on vacation to an island near here and I thought it was the perfect chance to try and get my freedom, so I ran away. They didn't really agree with the whole 'being a pirate' thing, so running was my only option," Aki informed, grinning all the while. Satomi studied the girl again, taking in Aki's wide green eyes and pale skin. She was wearing a brown tank top, and short shorts, with brown leather gloves and boots, and she had red goggles resting atop her head. Satomi thought the girls outfit actually went together well, though she personally thought the girl needed the color orange thrown in their somewhere. Even so, Satomi couldn't bring herself to imagine the girl to be the kind of person who could grow up and be a Tenryuubito, the kind of person who could own slaves and be an altogether awful person. She figured that was why Aki was sitting in front of her now, a member of her pirate crew.

Satomi sighed ever so slightly then and relaxed altogether. She couldn't blame anyone for their parentage, that would make her very hypocritical, and she rather liked Aki anyways.

"Say, when are we hitting Fallston? I hear they have great whiskey there, and I'm just dying for some alcohol," Satomi asked, directing her words to Tobi, who seemed to be working out and doing push-ups and stuff. He paused, and then moved to a sitting position and facing his captain.

"Actually, we should be getting there by lunchtime. Just in time for us to finally get an actual meal," Tobi informed, thinking back on how Satomi, their temporary cook, had refused to put forth the effort to cook anything for them. Satomi rolled her eyes slightly before grinning, thinking of all the things she could do in the bid, infamous town.

"Awesome, I look forward to it. We'll have to stock up on booze, and look for another crewmate or two, and then look for any good ships, 'cause this little boat just ain't gonna do," Satomi responded, scooting over to lean against the side of the boat. Satomi would much rather buy a ship on Citrus, but she supposed that if they found one on Fallston island she shouldn't really turn it down. Tobi nodded, returning to his workout, cap resting calmly next to him, and it was about that moment that Satomi realized that what had once been a marine hat was now a black hat with the classic, very pirate-ish, skull and crossbones. Satomi smiled vaguely at that, scratching lightly at the back of Jake's ears, and enjoying the nice weather.

"We just need to keep an eye out for it," Tobi said, and Satomi nodded unconsciously, not really paying attention as she got lost in her own thoughts, an enjoyed past time of hers.

While Satomi was relaxing, Jack was eyeing her with the vaguest of concern. When it had just been Jack and his captain, Satomi made sure there was always a conversation, constantly conversing with him, finding out everything she could about him and sharing some details of her own. Since the new arrivals to their boat, she seemed far calmer, less on edge and much more at peace, like she no longer had to worry about silence. Jack really thought that his captain had problems with silence, but he couldn't be too sure. His thoughts were distracted as Shannon began to lick at his fingers and arms, and he had to shove the dog off as she tried to jump in his lap. He scowled blatantly at the dog, which had made it her mission not to leave his side unless he were getting off the boat (she didn't seem to like getting off the boat even though Jake and Harvey both seemed to enjoy feeling the earth beneath their paws). Jack couldn't wait to reach that stupid island.

* * *

"Yay! Yippee! We get to explore an island!" Aki shouted jovially as the crew began tying the ship up and getting ready to leave their ship. Satomi smiled slightly at the girl's enthusiasm as she forced Harvey and Shannon into the cabin in the boat, having already put Jake in his kennel (she wasn't about to force her poor, mini den-den mushi into another one of those... situations) and separated the money.

"Yes, I'm sure it'll be wonderful," Tobi's lackluster tone said he felt otherwise.

"There'll be booze, I'm sure it'll be fine," Satomi said offhandedly, handing Tobi half of the money the she had grabbed from her stash, "Use this money to get yourself and Aki lunch, and scope out the island for anything useful. We're splitting into the buddy-system so we can cover more ground, and I lay claim to the doc."

"Yeah, sure," Tobi said, "… Wait, I'm stuck with that disturbingly happy brat?!"

"Sorry dude, you'll have to get over. I'm sure it won't be that bad," Satomi said with a shrug, though there was very little concern in her tone or expression. Tobi glared at her, not actually speaking against his captain's orders and silently planning her death. "Relax, once we have a few more crewmates, you won't have to be paired up with her. Just survive until then."

Nobody really said anything, but it was really quite clear that Tobi was unhappy with his partnering and there was nothing he could do about it. Aki didn't seem the least bit put out by his mood, and still managed a happy expression. Jack just rolled his eyes at his best friend's behavior. Tobi was generally a laid back kind of guy, but he seemed to have something against children and happy people. Aki seemed to be both. Satomi was mentally laughing and patting herself on the back for doing something to piss someone off. Satomi kind of enjoyed being a difficult person.

The group got off their tiny boat, standing in the relatively busy Harvey of Fallston, a bustling town in the South Blue that everyone knew of for its frightening crime rate. Gazing around, Satomi couldn't count on her hands or toes the number of people that looked shifty and very likely to slit her throat just for a couple hundred Beli. She turned to Tobi and Aki, who were standing together, obviously preparing to run off.

"We'll meet back here in, say, three hours to share notes and decide what we want out of this place. Stick together, don't get lost, don't cause any scenes, and please, please, please don't hurt each other," Satomi informed, giving Tobi a pointed look. Tobi just rolled his blue eyes, giving a slight nod.

"Bye Satomi, Doc! See you later!" Aki stated with her usual gleeful expression, causing Jack to roll his eyes at her sudden adoption of Satomi's nickname for him. He supposed he was officially stuck with the title. The captain-doctor duo watched the pair wander off before moving in another direction, studying their surroundings.

"D'you think we should've brought our weapons since this island is supposed to be so dangerous?" Satomi questioned nonchalantly, and Jack gave a slight sigh as he realized that might have been wise.

"Too late for that now. I'll be useless if anything happens, and I'm sure Aki will be too, so I guess it's good we at least divided into groups with people that are capable of hand-to-hand," Jack heaved another sigh, and Satomi chuckled lightly, obviously in high spirits.

"Oh well, I'm sure we'll survive. At least this place is supposed to have good whiskey, and I do love me some whiskey. We should check out that bar and grab a bite to eat, it doesn't look to run down or rodent infested," Satomi suggested, pointing to a surprisingly clean looking bar, which stood out easily with its run down and beaten surroundings. Jack agreed easily, not really having any preference and figuring they were less likely to get themselves killed in a bar that was cleaner than the rest of the town.

They made their way to the bar, which wasn't filled with too many people, and took a seat in the actual bar area. They had their orders taken quickly, and Jack figured the place wasn't too bad.

"I'll be back in a minute," Jack said, getting up out of his barstool and making his way to the bathroom area, Satomi not saying anything and just taking a long swallow from her newly arrived whiskey. She smiled lightly at the burning sensation, and placed the bottle back down with a content sigh. They did have good whiskey on this island.

* * *

Moreau Royce-Jean was a man of… well, he was man. He had been staying in Fallston for a few months now, and happened to be entering his favorite bar (the only one on the island that wasn't good at giving food poisoning) and ready to get himself another woman. He supposed if there was one word to describe him (other than handsome, genius, classy, amazing) than he would have to admit womanizing worked. It was pretty befitting.

Now, Royce (as that was so much shorter than Royce-Jean, and sounded a little less stupid according to his sister and her bratty best-friend) usually had really high standards. So he wasn't sure why it was that, upon entering the bar, he felt so drawn to the silver haired woman sitting at the bar. She certainly wasn't hideous, in fact she was relatively attractive, being tall and thin, with a slight tan and just slightly more gifted assets than what was common for women. She just wasn't quite up to his standards and still he felt compelled to walk over and talked to her. He blamed it on her exotic looking hair, which he was sure was quite the eye catcher.

So while the woman, who he also couldn't help but feel was oddly familiar (something that usually meant he should turn and run, though he felt this time was different), was nursing a bottle of whiskey, he walked up and wrapped one of his arms around her waist, somehow managing that from his place at the barstool next to hers. Immediately the woman stiffened and her gaze whipped around so that she stared him down with dark brown eyes, an expression on her face that could have made some men wet themselves. The look made her seem even more familiar, which again, should have been a sign to run, bet he kept on.

"Well, hello there," he said in his deep, attractive voice, expecting her to melt like putty in his hands just with his words. Satomi scowled darkly at him. He smiled, his handsome green eyes glistening.

"If you don't remove your hand from my waist, I'm going to castrate you," she stated darkly, and immediately Royce retracted his hand, believing her.

"My apologies Miss, I've just been terribly lonely, you see, my girlfriends left me and I'm not from around here, and I just… I'm lonely," Royce lied impeccably, pulling off a truly upset expression. Satomi just raised one fine, silver eyebrow at him.

"I'm a virgin," she stated bluntly, making Royce cough and turn a crimson red, shocked by her openness. "And I don't plan on that changing anytime soon, Roy. You, of all people, should know that."

Royce's eyes widened at her obvious familiarity with him, and the use of his even shorter nickname. He studied her face, though he still could not place why she seemed so familiar.

"Um, do I know you?" he questioned anxiously, not sure what to do. He really hoped she was a friend, and hearing that she was a virgin meant that he at least didn't need to be one of those girls that got angry when they found out a night together was a one night stand and not that beginnings of a truly romantic relationship like Royce usually promises while ravishing women. He really needed to learn not to do that. He could still feel the burn of Vickie's hand on his cheek from when he last saw her.

"You don't remember me?" Satomi questioned, her expression cross. Royce just gave her a blank stare, and she huffed in annoyance, grabbing a strand of her hair and shoving it in her face, "Seriously? Dude, my hair is friggin' silver for god's sake, how can you not remember a person with silver hair, you geeky fool?!"

Royce blinked once, then twice, and then he gasped in realization, so shocked e actually fell out of his barstool. It was at this point that Jack returned, and he gave a look of utter confusion to his captain as he stepped up next to Royce. Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, Royce popped back up and lunged for Satomi.

"Tomi-tan!" he shrieked with joy, and Satomi likened it to that of his younger sister, mentally sniggering as she decided that he could still pull off girly shrieks even in a mature male body. After a moment of him awkwardly hugging her, she forced him off of her.

"Roy, bro, I don't care how tight we are, only Etoile can call me Tomi-tan," Satomi snipped off harshly, and Royce made a face of mock hurt.

"Oh, Satomi, you're still so cold! Was even the love of darling Tyson not enough to melt your cold heart?" Royce questioned dramatically, flailing his arms about in a manner he had not done in a very long time. Satomi's gazed hardened at the comment, and she scowled at him in a way she had never scowled at him before.

"Tyson could rot in Davy Jones's locker room for all I care, now what are you doing here in the South Blue, you idiot?" her harsh words slightly frightened Royce, and Jack was caught off guard by the conversation his captain was having with the stranger, though he supposed she knew the strange man, and Jack decided he would wait a moment before he interrupted the conversation.

"Um, I'll pretend you didn't just say that about Ty of all people for now and bring that up later," Satomi kicked him in the shin roughly, so Royce hurried along with his answer, "I'm here in the South because I'm improving my navigating skills in an ocean that I'm positive can't kill me. I've already covered the entire East Blue, so I came here too."

"Navigating, you say?" Satomi questioned, a mischievous grin spreading across her face, annoyance forgotten. She shared a glance with Jack, who knew where this was gotten. "And is this personal traveling, or are you signed on with some company or something?"

"Um, personal traveling, why?" Royce's eyes narrowed, having seen that same expression on his sister's face a few time and knowing it couldn't mean anything good on Satomi of all people. She was Etoile's best friend after all, and no matter their differences, they did sometimes think along the same lines.

"Well, in case you didn't already know, though I'm pretty sure you'd have to be a lot dumber than you are, I've been doing some personal sailing of my own, and it just so happens that I'm in need of a good navigator. Mind joining us?" Satomi questioned as she motioned for Jack to come sit next to her and taking a bite of her recently arrived food. Royce glanced between the two, both staring expectantly at him, and he considered her offer.

"I can't," he responded, and Satomi's face fell. She had gotten her hopes up apparently, something Satomi didn't do often.

"Why?" she questioned, and Royce figured he wouldn't lie. He would, however, put off answering. He held out his hand to Jack.

"Hello, I'm Moreau Royce-Jean, but you can call me Royce since you seem to be friends with Satomi here. I'm a childhood friend of Satomi's, and you are?" Royce introduced, and Satomi scowled, knowing what he was doing, having done it a million times before herself. Apparently she wasn't the only one who had gotten some secrets while traveling, and it was unfortunately killing her to not know why he had turned her down. Anyone of his other siblings would have said yes without even batting an eyelash and here he was saying no. She quickly calmed herself though, knowing she was being presumptuous and that was rude. Jack stared for a moment before responding.

"The name's Rackham Jack, I'm doctor and first mate on Satomi's crew," Jack informed, shaking the hand as well. Royce raised his own eyebrows.

"Crew?" Royce questioned, and Jack glanced at Satomi, wondering if the question should be answered but not wanting a repeat of Tango Island.

"We're pirates. That's why we need a navigator, as pirate recruiting isn't the easiest ask in the world, now answer the question," Satomi snapped. Royce figured he would also save his pirate questions for later as well, remembering Satomi's infamous temper.

"I kinda, um, owe some people some money, and I need to repay them quickly because they, well, they kind of have Etoile…" Royce trailed off at the wide eyed expression on Satomi's face. Jack looked confused.

"Who is Etoile?" Jack questioned, glancing between the two old friends.

"My sister, and Satomi's best friend," Royce informed. Satomi narrowed her eyes.

"You owe people money and they're holding my best friends as prisoner until you pay them back?" she questioned, making sure that she had in fact her right. Royce nodded, waiting for the temper mental girl to blow up and call him an incompetent brother. He flinched at the very thought, but Satomi reacted much calmer than he had expected.

"How much do you owe and who do you owe?" Satomi questioned, studying Royce. Jack frowned, knowing what this meant.

"I owe seventy-five million Beli to a man named Sid, who deals heavily in the black market here. He's got a group of bandits on the Isle of Nome that are holding her. I'm not allowed to leave this island until I pay him back," Royce finally informed, and Satomi gave him an expression that usually conveyed a lack of being impressed.

"And you're here trying to pick up women while your sister is in trouble?" Satomi questioned, making a valid point and causing Royce to go crimson.

"W-well I, I m-mean-" his defense was interrupted.

"That's just terrible," Jack put in, giving him a rather rude look, and Royce felt the quilt flood him in a wave.

"She was taken away two days ago, and I don't know how to earn the money, because I only have three weeks before they're going to kill her," Royce said, and Satomi sighed, shaking her head and rolling her eyes at his helplessness.

"How about this, we handle this Sid fellow and get Etoile free, and the both of you join my crew. Because I can honestly tell you that even if you do get the money, they're going to kill Etoile anyway, and they'll probably rape her or something equally atrocious first, and I know how you are when it comes to guys touching her inappropriately," Satomi offered, and Royce promptly began imagining all the ways he could kill anyone that trued touching his precious baby sister in a way he didn't like.

"I'm gonna kill them if they even consider touching her like that," he seethed, and Satomi sighed again.

"Hypocrite," Satomi mumbled under her breath just loud enough for Jack to hear, causing the doctor to chuckle quietly. After all, if Royce could be involved in such crude activities, then why couldn't Etoile when she was only a few years younger than him?

"Well, if we're gonna help out your friend, shouldn't we get a plan first, captain?" Jack questioned, glancing in the direction of his silver haired companion. She nodded, barely even giving it a second thought.

"We'll keep checking around the town, dragging Royce with us so he doesn't get himself in any more _danger,_" Satomi gave him a glare on that last word before continuing on, "And when it's been three hours we can meet back up with Tobi and Aki and plan from there. How's that sound to you?"

"Sounds good as long as those two don't get themselves in any trouble," Jack responded, and they both paused for a second to imagine the ways their crewmates could get themselves in trouble. It was somewhat disappointing. Royce was staring at the two though, a frown on his face and his brows furrowed.

"Wait, you guys only have two other crewmates?" he questioned, sounding a bit concerned.

"Well, yeah, we haven't exactly been at this long and people don't necessarily favor the thought of joining rookie pirate crews. But we're strong enough to handle our own, so we can do this. Relax," Satomi's last comment made Royce burst into laughter, much to Jack's confusion, but Satomi understood why he was laughing and she pulled a face at him. "And you can shut up, too."

"You just told me to relax. You, of all people! I just think that's hilarious," Royce said as his laughter died down, and Jack frowned because he really didn't think it was very funny, though he supposed it might have had to do with the way Satomi was whenever she had last seen this guy.

"Yes, I did just tell you to relax, oh well, you looked like you needed to relax with that concerned face you were making," Satomi scowled at Royce and took another swig of her alcohol.

"Oh please, I don't care how tiny your crew is, you're so violent and over protective of Etoile you could probably handle this all on your own," Royce said with a grin, and Satomi rolled her eyes, "Now since I heard something about three hours I think I'll just leave you guys to do what you all want and just, you know head over there."

"Oh no you don't, you're going to stay here and tell us why you owe this Sid guy seventy-five million Beli, you womanizing prat," Satomi snapped as her hand shot put, grasping painfully onto Royce's ear, maneuvering him onto the barstool next to her and preventing the man from making his way to a very busty looking red head that was quite scantily clad.

"Well apparently Sid is a jealous man," Royce responded, and it took Satomi a few minutes to figure out what this was supposed to mean. She glanced confusedly at Jack, as if he could answer her, but he just shrugged. She glanced back at Royce.

"What?" she asked, totally not sure what that supposed to mean.

"Sid is a jealous man and doesn't like it when his women are approached by other men with… er, propositions," Royce responded, and Satomi's eyes narrowed at him.

"All this over a woman? You sicken me Royce. I mean, you're wearing a suit to pick up women aren't you? What, did you decide to learn from Mr. Bran?" Satomi sneered at her old friend.

"As a matter of fact, I did. And you know what? This happens to be a very good suit. The only woman who could ever resist it would have to be you and that's only because you really aren't much of a woman," Royce stated, and Satomi's left eye twitched. Jokes like this had been made often on their home island, and While Satomi knew her friends had never really meant much by the jokes (or at least she hoped they didn't) they really pissed her off sometimes. Not to mention the fact they had never reached Etoile's family, so her older brother's use of one of these jokes made her ready to break a nose. Instead she retrained.

"Well, whatever. At least I didn't have to fill out like you. I mean, what did you take steroids or something? You used to be so scrawny and disproportionate," Satomi snapped, and then Royce frowned; Jack glanced between the two before releasing a sigh. He began eating at his food while the two began to bicker. It was goin to be a long three hours.


	9. Planning and Ice Cream

Rirry-Chan: Alright, I think this chapter killed a small part of me. I'm not sure why, but I just found it har to make myself write this, and I think that reflects in the chapter. Sorry. Eitehr way, feedback would be nice from you guys. It would be nice to know what y'all thinkg of the characters, or the plots or just anything. It has recently come to my attention that I'm actally probably not clever enough to write. I have decided this upo looking at all the wonderful One Piece arcs where there is cool secretiveness and just cool stuff. I'm not good at that stuff. I think I'm too straight forward in my writing. But I don't know how to change that, so some nice comments might help. Please? Also, sorry about gramatical errors, I'm a bad person and don't actually check my writing. I plan on going black later and revising all my chapters. That should be fun. But here you guys go, R&R and please enjoy.

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Satomi, Jack, and Royce were all walking down the streets, silence settling on the group for the first time. Jack was a little relieved for the silence, because Satomi and Royce had not stopped bickering since they had left the bar. It was strange, to see his normally calm captain react in such a manner without actually attempting to beat him. As long as he'd known Satomi (which he supposed wasn't long) she hadn't participated in petty squabbles. At all. But now she seemed much more childish in that are, challenging anything and everything Royce said to her when he wasn't challenging what she would say to him. Deep down, Jack secretly thought it was funny. He was silently musing over this recent change in behavior when Royce broke the silence.

"Hey, Tomi-Tan, guess what." Royce nonchalantly ordered, slinking next to the silver haired pirate. She spared him a glare of annoyance at the use of her childhood nickname from Etoile, but otherwise did not respond. "I'm taller than you!"

At this comment, Satomi stopped. She turned to face Royce directly, and he stopped as well, as if he knew what she was doing. She just stood for a moment, silently glaring at the top of his head. Then she sighed.

"This should come as no surprise. I told you it'd happen. You were just impatient. Though you're not taller by much. I'd bet that you're still the shortest of my guy friends from Tiane. I mean, you're barely an inch above me. So don't let this go to your head. It's bad enough you talk to women like Jacques," Satomi stated smugly, but Jack was a little confused. Why was height so important? Royce scoffed at Satomi for her response.

"I'm still beating you! And don't you dare bring Jacques into this. I'm nowhere near as bad as that brat," Royce scowled at the thought. Satomi raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips.

"Well, he might beat you verbally, but I'm more than confident you are far more physical than your little brother. I never threatened to castrate him after all, did I?" Satomi challenged. Royce just rolled his eyes. He hated that she had made a comment like that. All their childhood everyone had constantly told his little brother, Jacques, not to be creepy to Etoile's friends, since he constantly made comments about their beauty and likeableness. He had once told Satomi that he didn't care about their age difference, he would love her nonetheless. Being compared to his little brother wasn't cool.

"The difference between me and Jacques is that he has to continue his pursuits, all I need is one night and I'm satisfied," Royce said smugly, and Satomi just face palmed at his comment.

"Doc. A little help here?" she pleaded, already exhausted of her friend's personality. Jack grinned at her, thoroughly amused.

"Oh no, I'm really just enjoying the show here. Although I must ask, what was the deal with the height?" Jack questioned, and the two both adopted the same expression of annoyance as they both glared at the top of _his_ head, which was a good five inches above Royce's.

"Well, you wouldn't understand," Satomi began, and Royce nodded.

"Seeing as you've probably always been the tallest in your age group," Royce continued for his silver haired friend.

"And probably never had to worry about height." Satomi finished.

"The thing with the height is that as a child, I was always the tallest. Well, not including my cousin, but we do have the some of the same genes, so that should be expected," Satomi began again, and Royce rolled his eyes.

"She was always taller than even the boys. And it was annoying. Hell, at the age of twelve she was taller than most sixteen year old boys. And now I'm finally taller than her, after years of having to look up to her, now she has to look up to me!" Royce then proceeded to laugh evilly, making Satomi turn her head to him again, this time with both eyebrows raised.

"Bro, you're not even an inch taller than me. I'm hardly looking up," Satomi sneered, before looking back to Jack. "At least I can say that Roy here will never be the tallest thanks to you Doc. I knew there was a reason to keep you around."

That shut Royce up and he shot Satomi a vehement glare. She just smirked at him, and Jack chuckled lightly. As rude as their banter sounded, he was pretty sure they were genuinely having fun, though he wasn't sure how he knew that.

"Come on, we probably oughta get back to the boat. We don't want to keep Tobi and Aki waiting. I don't think Tobi'll have much patience left after you made him partner with Aki," Jack suggested, and Satomi made a guilty face.

"Man, I almost regret that. But I don't. He needs to learn to suck it up," Satomi stated, the guilty expression sliding off in favor of a more stern expression.

"Probably, but try to not be too hard on him," Jack kind of stood up for his friend, and Satomi grinned.

"No worries, with Royce here Tobi and him can partner up and we can take Aki. When we get Etoile, she can take Aki and the when we get another member… Never mind, I'm planning too far ahead and can't do this with out some paper or something. Just don't worry about it…" Satomi trailed off, officially in deep thought. Jack and Royce both gave her odd looks. Jack turned to Royce.

"So, you knew younger Satomi? Got any embarrassing stories about her?" Jack questioned, grinning broadly at the thought of hearing embarrassing stories of his captain. Royce grinned back, opening his mouth to respond.

"Loads. There was the incident in the music room, the Etoile Bathroom scare, the-" Royce was cut off.

"If you carry on with this conversation, I'll remove your balls, blend them with ice cream and force feed it to you. Then I'll tell all my crewmates about the snake in the shower, or the underwear incident that happened during that black out," Satomi's expression was so threatening that both Jack and Royce took large steps away from her. Royce paled a bit, sticking his hands defensively in the air.

"No worries, Satomi. I'll stop," Satomi studied his expression, looking for a lie, and then relaxed when she decided she had properly scarred him. Jack looked at her oddly.

"Captain? Have you been feeling alright, because you've been acting a little… different," Jack wondered. She relaxed and turned to give her first mate a slight smile.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just a little thrown off by Royce's appearance. I should be back to normal and adjusted after a while," Satomi said, trying to act a bit more 'normal.'

"Wait, this isn't normal for Satomi?" Royce asked, and Satomi rolled her eyes.

"No, it's not. I happen to have changed over the years. Bit like how you keep acting like a creepy mix of Jacques and Old Man Bran," Satomi eyed him warily, daring him to argue, but Royce just shrugged his shoulders, seeing what she meant about changes. "Now let's hurry up. I can see the boat from hear."

Satomi's companions agreed and they made the effort to reach the boat just as Aki came into sight, knocking loudly on the door to the boat's cabin. She was shouting, but her words were jumbling too fast to really understand. She didn't seem to upset though, so Satomi wasn't too worried about the sight.

"Hey Aki, what's the deal?" Jack questioned as the group approached. Aki spun on her heal to see her crewmates, a grin plastered onto her face.

"Tobi just locked me out of the cabin after he used the spare key to get in and I want in," she didn't sound the least bit concerned about the situation as her eyes slid over to Royce, "and who is the weirdo in the suit?"

"Ha, I knew there was a reason I liked you, Kid," Satomi chuckled a bit, ruffling Aki's hair affectionately as she pulled her own key out of her messenger bag to unlock the door. "This is just an old friend of mine. We're going to help him out, and in return he'll join the crew as out navigator. Our _proper_ navigator."

"I'm not weird…" Royce mumbled defensively under his breath, much Jack's amusement. Aki turned to Royce.

"Oh. Well, I'm Aki, nice to meet you!" she greeted pleasantly, and the big grin on her face washed away all of Royce's emotions. Royce liked happy people. Satomi had practically grown up in his house, and after dealing with all her pessimism as a child, he was very appreciative of happy, energetic people.

"I am Moreau Royce-Jean, but you may call me Royce, or Roy," Royce greeted in return, smiling as well. Satomi gave them amused looks as she finally got the key unstuck from the door and swung it open.

"Aki's basically our archer, she says she pretty good with a bow and arrow, and looks like she knows what she's doing when she fiddles with the stuff. I don't actually know how good she is though. You'll get to meet Tobi in… just… a… minute. Tobi? Tobi, where are you?" Satomi called out, looking around moving to the side so her companions could enter the room and waiting for a response from her crewmate. Harvey ran straight up to Royce and began sniffing at him, his tail wagging behind him. Shannon sat on the couch, practically glaring at them and growling menacingly at Royce.

"I'm right here," Tobi said as he entered the room, Jake right behind him. Jake took one look at Royce and then ran straight back into Tobi and Jack's room, being a wuss. Satomi rolled her eyes. Sometimes Jake would look at new people and just run away in terror. Considering he was her largest dog, she thought it was kind of really pathetic. "Who's the weirdo in the suit?"

"Kihihihi," Satomi bent over laughing, while Royce grumbled under his breath. Satomi calmed down to talk, "I think you're a bit more like Aki then you realize."

"No I'm not! I'm nothing like that brat!" Tobi was pointing angrily at Aki, and Satomi felt a twinge of annoyance at his immense rudeness to the small girl, but she brushed it off, deciding she talk to him about it later when they had the time.

"Relax Tobi. It's just that you referred to this guy the exact same way as Aki is all," Jack attempted to soothe his friends irrational anger, continuing, "This is a friend of Satomi's that we're going to help in return for his services as a navigator."

"Oh. Good, we need a navigator. There was no way I was going to keep that up. I'd be more likely to get us killed," Tobi responded. He stuck his hand out to Royce, introducing himself. "Welcome to the crew, I guess. My name's Tobi and I am the resident martial artist."

"Um, cool. I'm Moreau Royce-Jean, but you can call me Royce or Roy," Royce shook his hand hesitantly, still a little offended buy the 'weird' comment. Satomi would argue that is was true though. Royce supposed Satomi would be right.

"So how are we going to be helping this guy out?" Tobi asked, turning to Satomi and Jack, the two that happened to be the technically highest rank on the ship (this realization made him a little concerned about his safety).

"Well, apparently Royce here owes some guy on the black market a lot of money," Jack informed, and Tobi turned excitedly back to Royce.

"Oooh, what'd you do?" Tobi interrogated, hoping for some cool story. Satomi decided to step in and ruin any possibility of coolness.

"The fool tried hitting on a woman that was, as a matter of fact, not on the market," Satomi deadpanned. Tobi stared for a moment.

"Was that a pun?" Royce asked, and everyone turned to stare at him for a second.

"What do you mean?" Satomi questioned, not sure what he meant by her words being a pun.

"Well, you said the woman wasn't on the market, and the guy is big in the black market. You know, all connected to market and stuff," Royce responded. Satomi hesitated.

"I'm not exactly sure that qualifies as a pun," she stated, unsure.

"I don't know, that sounds like it could be a pun," Jack said. Everyone considered this for a minute.

"I think it's only a pun if it's intended," Tobi said. Aki was tempted to say something, but she actually had no idea what they were talking about, so she thought better of it. Surprisingly.

"Listen, as much as I would just love to argue the stipulations of a pun, we have more important things to do," Satomi stated, taking a seat on the couch, prompting the others to take their own seats. Aki and Royce sat on either side of Satomi wile Jack and Tobi both went to occupy comfortable chairs that were angled to face the couch. Satomi leaned back in the couch, contemplating putting her feet on the coffee table before deciding not to.

"Alright, Royce, I need you to tell us as much as you can about this Sid guy and his manpower. This way we can plan everything out and decide who gets to take who," Satomi requested, her eyes studying Royce. Royce nodded, responding.

"First there's Sid. There's been a rumor going around that he's got a devil fruit ability, but I can't be positive. Then, there's Sid's woman," Royce's face paled somewhat at this.

"This woman wouldn't happen to be the one that got you in trouble with in the first place, would it?" Jack asked, eying him. Royce's shoulders slumped.

"Yes, and she is really scary. She's got this sword, and she's so good with it. She gave me this," Royce stated as he removed his fancy jacket, un-tucking his shirt and pulling it up to reveal a long, thin, pale scar across his stomach. Satomi looked at it with a certain lack of impression, but that others all looked at it with some respect.

"You shouldn't have bothered her then. Not every woman is nice enough to warn you to stop before trying to kill you like I am," Satomi stated, and everyone sort of remembered that he had gotten it from being a pervert and any form of respect flew out the window.

"That's what you get for an idiot," Aki said, her grin still in pace. Royce was torn between yelling at her and marveling at how good she was at smiling. He was sure if he tried to smile that long, his face would just fall off.

"Nonetheless, carry on," Jack said, reminding them they had things to discuss.

"Okay, well other than Marissa, Sid's woman, there's also this guy named Fortis, and he's really, really big. And muscular, I can't forget to mention that he has got some serious muscles. The guys really skilled in hand-to-hand combat, it's really scary," Royce said, recalling the large man, "And then Sid also has a large collection of grunt men. They aren't the best, but they can usually get the job done."

Everyone sat in silence for a moment, no one sure what to say. Satomi was thinking, planning, trying to come up with a good plan. They had a scythe user, a martial artist, an archer, and… whatever the hell Royce was. She recalled taking fighting classes with him as a child (along with his other three siblings), but he had held very little skill, and had been far too scrawny at the time to really get good. So was he useless? She had to know.

"Uh, Royce?" she voiced, gaining his attention. "Can you even fight? 'Cause last time I saw you, you could have been beaten up by twelve year olds, and I really hope that's changed by now."

"As a matter of fact, I am a boxing champion, and no longer useless," Royce informed, giving her a look of determination. Satomi smirked at that, proud her friend had improved, "I've also recently taken to fighting with brass knuckles, which are pretty handy too."

"Was that a pun," Satomi asked sarcastically, a smirk on her face. The others chuckled while Royce rolled his eyes. "That's good news though really, because that means my plan will probably work."

"Oh, speaking of news, before we get too into this, I just want you to know that we apparently made it into today's paper after the stuff at Tango island," Tobi said excitedly, a grin on his face, Satomi returned the grin with just as much enthusiasm.

"Lovely. I can read it after we've settled on our course of actions. So anyways, here's what I was thinking…" Satomi then launched into great detail (Royce was both pleased and annoyed to find that Satomi had not stopped her habit of being overly descriptive) of what she thought they should do. In all honesty, the plan could have been more elaborate, or more original, or just better, but it wasn't too bad and nobody else had any ideas, so they decided they would just go with it.

"Yay! I have a fun part!" Aki shrieked happily, jumping up and down in her seat. Satomi smiled awkwardly at her.

"Um, I'm glad you like your roll in all this?" she kind of questioned, not sure if perhaps the girl was being sarcastic. Sure, it wasn't a bad job, but it was certainly not something Satomi would ever get excited about. Then again, Satomi had probably been born without any enthusiasm genes. Or perhaps Satomi just didn't get enthusiastic about the right things.

"I can't complain about my part. I get to bust some heads," Tobi grinned. Satomi smiled lightly at the comment, fiddling with a silver chain bracelet around her wrist.

"I'll have to remember to bring my staff in case this guy really does have a devil fruit," Satomi stated, though it was more to herself than anything. She was already trying to imagine scenarios in her head, though she couldn't properly when she had no idea what kind of fruit Sid might have. She sighed, removing the bracelet and then putting it back on repetitively. Royce was watching her.

"You still have that bracelet?" he questioned, surprised the unorganized woman hadn't lost it after all these years. Satomi glanced back at it.

"Of course. Buba gave it to me, and he got it from our mom. That would be like me selling the staff," Satomi stated, a bit offended. OF course, she had almost lost the bracelet, but that was in a different way from what Royce was probably thinking, and she had managed not to lose it, so that was what counted.

"Well, I just never thought it meant that much to you," Royce responded.

"Dude, it's from my brother. Of course it's important to me," Satomi snapped.

"Wait, you have a brother?" Jack questioned in shock.

"Err, yeah. I have two brothers and a sister, actually. My oldest brother and my sister Lana are actually twins, and we're the scariest group of Raider D. children that have been born in a while," Satomi informed.

"I wouldn't say scary. More like violent or vicious," Royce inputted. Satomi rolled her eyes at the comment.

"My oldest brother is also a pirate, but my other brother Warren is a prominent figure in my nation's military in Tiane, where we are from. Warren was always the good child, joining the military like most of the men in my family, and Lana is pretty favored too, having married an acceptable young man and blah, blah, blah…" Satomi trailed off, deep in thought, probably thinking of her siblings. "But I love the lot of them, goody-two-shoes or not."

Everyone sat in silence, oddly surprised at this revelation from their captain. They had just assumed she was an only child (except Royce, because he actually knew) so this had been a surprise.

"I've always wanted siblings," Aki stated, causing everyone to stare at her. "I've also always wanted a kitten."

"Uh, that's nice Aki," Jack said, looking at her skeptically. Royce was mirroring the doctor's expression, having never meant anyway quite as random as this child.

"Anyhow…" Satomi began, gathering her crew's attention, "I figure we should wait to execute the plan until tomorrow, and until then we can prepare, or train or something, or buy anything we might need, such as supplies. I don't want to spend any more money on food just yet, so I'll be making dinner. How's that sound?"

"Can we go buy some watermelon? Actually, Tobi and I saw this really cool ice cream place! Can we go there?" Aki questioned her eyes bright at the prospect of sugar. Satomi considered this for a moment, glancing to Royce.

"Do you know if this place is going to be clean enough to eat there without getting so horrendous disease?" the captain inquired. Royce shrugged his shoulders.

"I guess. It's better than most places," he responded vaguely. Satomi took this into consideration.

"Alright, sure. Who wants to make it a group outing? We can get some booze for our travels on the way back," Satomi suggested, looking at her crew to see who wanted to go. Jack looked confused.

"I thought you didn't want us eating out?' he questioned, confused. Satomi gave him a pointed look.

"Dude, it's ice cream. It's so worth it!" she responded as if her answer were obvious. Aki jumped up shrieking with glee. The guys all agreed to go as well.

"Great joy," Satomi stated with very little enthusiasm, though she was really very happy they were going to get ice cream as a crew. It was a good way for them to bond. "This can be our pre-battle celebration."

So they all grabbed their stuff and made their way to the ice cream parlor, ready to relax before they took action the next day. They didn't know it yet, but this ice cream soiree of theirs was going to be well deserved considering all the pain and suffering they were going to be experiencing the next day. Not that they cared at the moment, because for the most part, they were really quite happy at the moment, and ready for action.


	10. A Bit of a Bar Fight

Rirry-Chan: Okay, so I think I got this out somewhat early? Not sure. Summer has ruined all sense of time for me. Anyways, I wrote a lot of this while recovering from the removal of my wisdom teeth, so this may be a little funky. Get over it. This was really just set up for the next chapter, probably qualifiable as filler. Whatever, I liked this chapter. So I'm gonna do a little rambling here, because from my spot here on my bed with my laptop (which had a crap ton of viruses for the past week, mind you), I have done very little socializing, and I think it's starting to really effect my mental stability. First off, there's this stupid mosquito in my room, and it won't die, and I've decided to name it Egbert in honor of Homestuck, which one of my sister's has begun to read. Also, for those of you out there that don't have security for your computers, get it! It's so worth it. I'm speaking from experience here. Also, I have decided that, come November, I will be participating for the first time ever in NaNoWriMo. Thoughts? I'd love to hear them. Also, anyone have any suggestions for the crews name? Because I can guarantee y'all that my idea is retarded. Anyways, Read, Review, enjoy.

* * *

"I think I'm gonna vomit," Satomi moaned, her right hand placed carefully on her stomach as she walked with the members of her crew. Jack walked next to her, his face pale and eyes wide.

"I… I just don't know what to say to that. I have no words for the filth I just heard…" Jack said, his mouth opening and closing, obviously wanting to say something but not sure how to word it. Tobi was walking behind them, his own expression thoughtful.

"You know, you taught me some new things today Royce. Thank you," Tobi said, causing Satomi to glance back at her crewmate and give him a weak glare. Tobi merely smirked in response.

"Satomi, what's a-" Aki began to question from Satomi's other side, but was quickly interrupted by her captain clamping a hand over her mouth.

"Whatever you're going to ask, don't. This is a conversation to have when you start involving yourself in big kid activities," Satomi said, softly shaking her head, and closing her eyes as if hoping to clear her mind of disgusting thought.

"Oh please, Tomi. You knew all of what that meant when you were twelve, I think you can explain it to the poor girl," Royce scolded, though there was an amused smirk on his face. "And you haven't even been involved in big kid activities."

"This isn't a conversation to be having in the middle of the street. Besides, my discovery of such things was due to one idiotic friend. And by the way," Satomi stopped walking, causing her crew to stop as she spun on her heel to face Royce, who was walking next to Tobi. She brought her right hand up to point rudely at her childhood friend while her other hand rested on it's hip before she continued her lecture, "I can not believe you, getting us kicked out of an ice cream parlor. Honestly, the things you said to that poor cashier lady made me nauseous. In all my years on the seas, of all the places I've been kicked out of, I never would have thought I could add ice cream parlor to my list."

"Good to know I could be your first at something," Royce said with a smirk, causing Satomi's face to redden, although everyone knew it was from anger, while Royce placed his hands in the pockets of his dress pants, pulling off a cool look. "Besides, she was pretty. Figured I'd give it a try. Now e can go to a bar, and drink and party and have fun and pick up wo-"

"If you finish that sentence, I'll give Etoile a second sister," Satomi threatened, and the violence was visible in her dark brown eyes. Royce did not flinch or lose his smile; in fact, he showed no outward's reaction to the intimidating threat other than the zipping of his mouth. "You will not speak to any women other than me at that bar, you pervert."

"Can we just go get some drinks? I'm really anxious to have a beer," Tobi wondered after a long, tense silence. Satomi sighed, turning back to face the front.

"Sure. I need a whiskey anyways. Aki, you can't have any alcohol either, you can wait until you're sixteen to start destroying your liver like I did," Satomi stated, giving a side glance to her green haired crew mate.

"Okay," Aki said with a grin, not minding as she took another bight from her last ice cream cone (the girl had managed to get six within the three minutes the crew had at the parlor before Royce had gotten them kicked out), humming a happy tune that Satomi thought was vaguely familiar but couldn't place. The crew just continued on their way to the bar, a venture Satomi had only given into after much begging on her crews' part, as they desired a party or some reason or another. Satomi wasn't sure she could call anything a party if it didn't have ice cream, but she gave in nonetheless.

* * *

Once the crew of pirates had reached the bar, the mood had seemed to lighten up. All three of the guys (after Jack had gotten his poor virgin ears to forget the words that had been uttered by Royce), were conversing happily, discussing all sorts of things that Satomi was sure could never interest her. Aki seemed perfectly content drinking juice and taking in her surroundings, every once in a while commenting on something Tobi said, annoying him. Satomi was beginning to wonder if perhaps the little girl wasn't annoying the ex-marine on purpose.

The males in her crew drowning drinks pretty fast (though Jack seemed to be carefully paying attention so as to avoid a level of drunkenness), but Satomi chose not to join in on the festivities, avoiding the drinking contests of people all throughout the bar. Satomi was pretty good at holding her alcohol, usually entering contests to earn a little money, but she was more in the mood to nurse her bottle of straight whiskey, content to listen to her surroundings and smile at her crewmates and how happy they seemed despite the fact that they knew they'd be battling the next day.

Satomi smiled to herself as she listened to Aki asking the bartender a bunch of annoying, pointless questions and hearing the laughter of her crew. It occurred to her that he group had increased pretty quickly, and she was pleased with this. She now had a doctor, a navigator, an archer, and a martial artist. Now all she found to be true necessity was a cook, a shipwright, and possibly a sniper. That wouldn't be too difficult, right?

Satomi could remember a time when looking for people of such skills were unnecessary for her, and she scowled. _'Tyson, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, I hope it was worth what you caused,'_ Satomi thought bitterly, as someone slid into the seat next to her. She didn't even turn her heads, just slid her eyes to the right as she brought the bottle of whiskey to her lips for another drink, otherwise ignoring Royce.

"Having fun, _Captain_?" Royce questioned, making the title somewhat sarcastic. Satomi smirked, rolling her eyes.

"Loads. What about you? Enjoying your crewmates?" She questioned back.

"Totally. But I have to ask, when did you decide to follow in your mom's footsteps?" Royce asked, and though he meant nothing by the question other than the thought to relieve his own curiosity, Satomi was offended. The captain scowled.

"I'm not following in anyone's footsteps, least of all my mother's. The only thing I have in common with that woman is hair color, weapon choice, favorite article of clothing," Satomi fingered the silver bracelet around her wrist at that, "and possibly future health concerns. That's it. I'm a pirate to piss people off and be _free_."

"Man, I always figured you would grow out of that desire to be free. Especially since something that would have messed up any chances of a career as a member of Tiane's military," Royce said, almost wistfully, "Though I understand where you're coming from. Just sailing around with Etoile has been great. And now that I can start busting people up, I don't think I need to worry about anything ever."

"Oh yeah, you totally don't have anything to worry about. Like, you know, a sister that's, you know, being held hostage by, like, criminals and crap," Satomi stated a little haughtily, but she was smiling nonetheless, because Etoile had always been tough in her own way, and Satomi was sure they'd find the girl in good health. Satomi was never confident in her own abilities, but she never had to worry about Etoile's capabilities. Etoile would stay strong. Royce's face flushed with embarrassment.

"Well, I just figure she'll be safe since we're going to get her together," he retorted half heartedly, and Satomi spared commenting on the dark-haired man's comment. She gave him a small grin.

"So what happened with Ty?" Royce wondered changing topic. Satomi's grin slid of her face as she prepared a reply.

"Well, His Royal Majesty deci-" Satomi's annoyed words were interrupted by a loud, deep voice.

"Oi, Moreau!" Every head in the bar turned to the voice's owner, a tall man that had to duck to enter the bar, and despite his size, there were few muscles like one would expect. Satomi notice a gun at his hip with a frown and glanced to Royce, who had paled.

"Ha-ha, hey there Carsem, fancy seeing you here," Royce said, chuckling awkwardly. Aki moved over to Satomi's side.

"Who's the four-eyes?" Aki questioned her captain as quietly, captivated by the newcomer's bright pink and orange glasses. Satomi shrugged, motioning for her crewmate to be quiet.

"The boss wants the first portion!" Carsem demanded, reaching the place at the bar where Royce and Satomi sat.

"The f-first portion? Wh-what do you mean?" Royce asked, leaning back from intimidation. Carsem rudely slammed his hands flat onto the bar, leaning his face close to Royce's.

"The boss said you were paying it in parts. So just give me the 50 million and I can go," Carsem practically growled at Royce, until Satomi tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to turn and look at her. Now, Satomi was wearing her usual black tank top with a jolly roger on front, but the shirt was relatively low cut, and with the angle that Carsem was facing her, it wasn't hard for him to get a full view of Satomi's cleavage, looking down. Satomi might not be Royce's type, but she could always catch a few lookers.

"What do you need from my friend here, exactly?" Satomi questioned politely, putting on a fake pleasant smile and resting her chin on the palm of her hand. Carsem struggled for a moment before bringing his eyes up to meet Satomi's dark brown ones. Satomi was tempted to vomit with how close he was standing.

"What's a pretty little thing like you hanging out with scum like Moreau here?" Carsem asked dumbly, tossing his thumb offensively in Royce's direction. Royce adopted an offended expression and opened his mouth to retort, but Satomi beat him to it.

"Well, he's a good friend of mine, and I just don't want anyone giving him any trouble, that's all. I'm just a bit overprotective," Satomi said, tilting her head as she looked up into Carsem's eyes from her spot on the barstool. Carsem blinked once.

"Oh," Carsem said dumbly, before responding again, "Well, he owes someone money, and he wants part of the money. Any trouble I give him, he deserves."

"That so?" Satomi questioned even though she would know the answer. She could see Tobi and Jack coming closer from her peripheral, and the bar seemed to have slowly begun to empty out. The bartender went into hiding in one of the back rooms.

"Yes, and you shouldn't let yourself get caught up in this. This isn't the kind of business for women t-" Carsem was caught off with Satomi lunging forward and clenching around the man's throat. The momentum in her lunge carried them both to the floor where Satomi straddled the man at his wait, her right hand firmly in place to joke him while both of Carsem's hands came up to claw at her hand, in hopes of getting free. Tobi and Jack quickly ran to aid them, though they weren't really sure who they were supposed to help.

"Not women's business, eh? And who told you that you could decide what qualifies as women's business? Least of all what's my business? It just so happens that I can do what I want, and a stupid _boy_ is not going to tell me what I can and can't do. Now, I understand what business you have with my friend Royce here, and I can guarantee you that all will be taken care of. I can't guarantee that all parties will be happy, but then, I'm not really a people pleaser," Satomi scowled down at the man beneath her, aware of her crewmates surrounding her. She slowly began to lessen her grip, leaving the man conscious as she got up and turned to walk back to her drink at the bar.

As Satomi moved to walk off, the man jumped up despite his dazedness and went to move for her. The pirates surrounding him knew he couldn't hurt their captain, but they reacted anyway. Tobi dropped low to the floor, kicking the man's legs out from underneath him. As he fell, Royce gave the man a good left upper hook, flipping him in the air and making the man land with a thud on his back. Without even thinking, Jack (everyone had brought their weapons except for Satomi) spun his scythe so that the tip of the blade was digging into Carsem's neck. Aki instinctually knocked an arrow into her bow, pointing the arrow threateningly at Carsem, all the while a grin on her childish face.

"Brilliant! You guys really are useful," Satomi said with a grin on her face as she spun around. Her eyes hardened once they reached Carsem, an unforgiving type of expression on her face. "Not a very honorable man, are you? That's incredibly disappointing, though not totally unexpected considering you work in the black market business. But you, mister, should understand that we are pirates, and not particularly concerned about being honorable ourselves. Well, I should be, but I'm in a bit of a bad mood, so that options gone out the window. Now, let him up, gentleman."

"What? Bu- Captain, he was-" Satomi cut her first mate off.

"Don't you worry about it Jack, I'm gonna have a private little chat with Mr. Carsem here, nothing I can't handle," there was a no-nonsense glint in Satomi's brown eyes, encouraging her crewmates to drop it. They let the man up, and before he could do anything, Satomi had grabbed hi painfully by the ear, the ear of all things, and was pulling him roughly to a dark corner of the bar. Her crewmates stared wide-eyed at the action, surprised by how effective such a move was.

"I swear if she weren't a pirate she'd make a good mom. A scary mom, of course, but a good one," Royce mumbled, receiving nods of agreement from his Nakama.

* * *

"Now, listen here, Mr. Carsem," Satomi demanded the man's attention by pulling harshly at the man's ear, causing him to flinch and let out a small whimper of pain. "I was here to relax and spend time with my crew, and you have severely ruined my mood. Now, Mr. Moreau's association with people like you and your boss, Mr. Sid, greatly upsets me. I'm going to let you go in hopes that you will scamper off like any good little rodent to tell your boss that tomorrow my crew and I will be showing up at his place to discuss business with him."

"U-uh, and wh-what if I don't?" Carsem tried to act tough, but Satomi saw right through it. She leaned forward, whispering something quietly into his ear, causing Carsem's eyes to widen as one of his hands went to cover his private area in a protective, though entirely embarrassing manner. HE nodded as soon as she was done speaking. "A-alright, I'll go tell Sid."

And Satomi released his ear to watch him turn tail and run for the door, a twisted smirk on her face. Ah, Satomi was such a sadist sometimes. With the image of terror ingrained pleasantly into Satomi's mind, the pirate captain turned to walk back to her crew, who were all staring at her in awe.

"Well, my mood's ruined, do any of y'all mind if we just go back to the boat?" Satomi wondered, already laying the money onto the bar for the barkeep to retrieve when he came out of hiding. She silently reminded herself to replace the crew funds with her own money, since she didn't want their money to get too low when she wanted them to buy an actual seafaring ship in an island or two.

"Not at all," Jack said pleasantly, the rest of the crew nodding.

"Lovely, Tobi, you can show me that newspaper that you said mentioned us," Satomi said with a grin, and the man nodded, although a little hesitantly. Perhaps his captain wasn't as friendly as originally thought.

* * *

Once the pirate crew reached their little boat, Satomi quickly found her hands occupied with that days newspaper. Her eyes skimmed over it quickly, before reading it again in more detail. It wasn't a bad report, informing the reader of the names of pirates and marines alike, mentioning ways to take notice of the pirates in public (Satomi's hair color), and also stating that the still tiny crew was a force to be reckoned with.

"Jones Kenneth?" Satomi mumbled unhappily to herself that night, recognizing the name to belong to that redheaded man from before, the one that had made her feel awkward. This made her scowl; she hated feeling awkward after all.

"Well, ladies and gentleman, we are officially in business as troublesome pirates," Satomi informed her crew with a grin, scratching at Jake's ears affectionately. The dog looked dumbly up at Satomi, his stubby tail wagging, making Satomi compare Carsem's intelligence to Jake. As a matter of fact, Jake was probably smarter than Carsem, and Jake had been known to run into solid walls on more than one occasion.

"Woo!" her crewmates cheered, though the only real enthusiasm came from Aki. Satomi rolled her eyes at that.

"Please, gentleman, contain your enthusiasm," Satomi said sarcastically, gaining some chuckles from her crewmates.

"I don't think it should be important until we either a) make front page or b) get super cool bounties," Royce said, and Satomi took this into consideration. She nodded a bit.

"Alright, I see where you're coming from here. We can hold off real hardcore celebrations until we get one of those two," Satomi consented, watching amusedly as Jack attempted to push Shannon off of his lap. Satomi was tempted to help her doctor, but was really finding it far too fun watching instead. After all, Shannon generally hated people, and she had chosen to like the one person who didn't want her attention. Was that what was considered ironic? Satomi was pretty sure it was.

"Well, I'd suggest we all get some sleep tonight. We have a big day tomorrow, and I want everyone's brains functioning properly," Satomi stated, rising from her seat with all of her crewmates, who seemed to agree.

"Aye, aye, Cap'n," they all chorused, off to prepare for the next day's plan.

* * *

The following morning found Satomi, Jack, Tobi, and Royce walking down the street, Aki having already run off to get into position. The pirates walking down the street were already prepared for battle, as Satomi had her flip-flops gone, her hair in a ponytail, her staff at hand, and both her jacket and bag on the boat. Jack had brought his scythe, Akuma no Nayami, Tobi was prepared to beat in some faces (then again, when wasn't he ready to do stuff like that?), and Royce had his brass knuckles (which were, in all actuality, made out of silver, much to Satomi's glee).

"You in position?" Satomi questioned into a mini den-den mushi as the four pirates came to a stop outside a very square, very drab looking building.

"You bet captain! I have a perfect view," Aki said, and Satomi felt a smirk cross her face.

"So you're ready?" Satomi questioned, though the glances she gave the rest of her crewmates told them that the question wasn't just meant for the green-haired little girl. The three men nodded. "You won't hesitate to take a shot?"

"Of course! Go ahead whenever you feel like," Aki's voice responded from the snail, and Satomi shut the device/creature off, handing it to Jack who put it in his pocket for safe keeping.

"Well, gentleman, can you be patient enough for me to bring the party to you guys?" Satomi questioned with a troublesome smirk on her face despite the politeness of her tone.

"Can you handle setting up the party?" Jack responded to the question with a question of his own, and grin gracing his face.

"Of course! Don't doubt me," Satomi said, mock offended.

"Well, there's your answer then," Royce replied, a grin of his own on his face as he sort of stretched his arms for a second.

"Splendid," Satomi responded gleefully as she spun on her heel, heading towards the door with her staff resting in the crook of her elbow in a manner that allowed it to follow the length of her body as she effortlessly entered the drab building. "I'll be seeing you boys momentarily then."

"So are we gentleman or boys?" Royce questioned after a pause, already bored of the silence. Jack waited a moment before responding.

"I don't think you can be considered a gentleman with the way you talked to that ice cream lady yesterday," Jack stated calmly, Tobi nodding sagely next to him. Royce rolled his eyes in a manner not unlike Satomi's.

"Well, that's offensive," Royce retorted, but no one responded to that. Seven minutes later, a girlish scream came from the building that Satomi had entered.


	11. Of Mice and Marketmen

Author's Note: I am soooooooooo sorry guys. Like, I'm not even sure you guys can comprehend how sorry I am that this chapter is so friggin' late. And it probably really sucks too, because I almost literally just sat down and forced myself to write all of it. I'm sorry. Things in my life have just been kind of... weird, and I'm really busy with Marching band, and high school, and I shouldn't be giving excuses, so yeah, I should have finished and posted this earlier. But I didn't. I'm sorry. I really am. I mean it with all my heart and soul. And I'm also going to tell you that I'm never actually going to go more than like, six months with out updating without finishing the story. Like, if I realize that's what's gonna happen, I'll just write a chapter where they all die and then come back like a year later and then delete that chapter and continue it. Don't worry, there'll be an ending. Also, I realize I didn't celebrate this last chapter, but woohoo, double digit chapters. Also, don't expect too many updates until after November, because while marching does end in early November, I still have NaNoWriMo, so yeah, I'm a busy woman. Also, if anyone would like to submit characters, I am hereby setting one very important rule. Any character you ever give me at any point of any time, must have already created attacks with attack names in the profile. Because for me, creating attack names is almost as painful as algebra. So, in other words, basically purgatory. Anyhow, please, read and review, and enjoy, thought I doubt most of you actually will.

* * *

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Now why is this room so empty?" Satomi wondered to herself as she gazed at her surroundings. She wasn't kidding either; the room was void of absolutely a_nything._ It certainly didn't look like it had any association with the leader of this islands black market. Royce hadn't said anything about this while they had been planning this, so she figured this wasn't a good sign. Why would they have moved though? She recalled telling the guy from the bar the prior night to warn his boss they would be coming to meet him for 'business', but she doubted they would have just turned tail and run.

"Uh, Hello?" she tried calling out, "Ah who am I kidding. I bet Royce just got us lost. Ugh." Satomi was distracted from her personal complaints by a loud **bang **coming from the other side of the only door in the large room. Satomi rolled her eyes at her own stupidity.

"Of course, why wouldn't I try checking the door? What am I, stupid or something? Meh, I probably shouldn't answer that. Then again, here I am, talking to myself again. I've really got to stop this nonsense. It can't be healthy for me. Even small comments can't be good, because they turn into the stupid longer conversations so now here I am, contemplating the emptiness of this room and talking to myself. Pathetic. Even Doc agrees. He gives me the strangest look when he catches me doing this-, you know what? I'm just going to shut up and go check that out." Satomi sighed at her weird issues with talking to herself before making for the door. Was that cursing she heard from the other side of it? She opened the door.

"-upid mother-" the voice stopped midsentence as its owner turned to look at Satomi. It was the guy from the bar that had tried to take money from Royce the previous night. Satomi raised one fine silver eyebrow at the sight before her. The man –what was his name, Carson or something? - was hobbling around on one leg while he was holding the other foot in his hands, a box dumped on its side nearby. Satomi figured he had just dropped the box on his foot, but the sight was hilarious since the guy- wait, wasn't his name actually Carsem? - was so awkwardly tall. His deer-in-the-headlights expression was even more priceless.

"Um… can I help you?" Carsem wondered aloud, vaguely confusing Satomi. Didn't he recall her telling him the night before that she would be popping in?

"Well, I kind of came here to see your boss? Remember when I told you about that last night…?" Satomi questioned. Carsem set his foot back on the ground, straightening up and taking an anxious step backwards. He cleared his throat.

"Ahem. Well, you see, we moved our headquarters two days ago. I'm only here to get this last box here," He gestured to the box on the floor near him, "So whoever informed you to come here is an is-AAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"

Satomi proceeded to cover her ears as the man let out the most earsplitting, girlish squeal she had ever heard. Good lord above, was he a banshee or something? She stared wide-eyed at him until he stopped, his own eyes wide as he was staring at a specific corner in the room. Satomi glanced hesitantly, her hands still on her ears just in case, only to find a desk pushed up against the wall.

"Dude, what the heck was that for? I can't even hit a pitch that friggin' high, and I'm a girl. My vocal chords are supposed to hit high pitches!" Satomi questioned vehemently, her ears still sore from the painful pitch. She glared at him expectantly, waiting for a legitimate reason. Carsem twitched a bit, inching in the opposite direction of the door before stuttering out a response.

"U-uh, there was a m-m-mouse! Oh my god its back!" Carsem covered his face, and Satomi was pretty sure he was crying she slowly turned to look back at the corner again and just barely saw the tail end of a very tiny, very innocent looking, brown mouse. Satomi rolled her eyes.

"Uh, dude, you do realize it can't hurt you, right?" Satomi questioned, practically concerned at his reaction. Then she remember her whole reason for coming to this building and realized she would get nowhere if she stayed in the room with the mouse, so she did the only thing she could think of. She firmly grabbed him by his ear and dragged him out of the room and back into the main room, glancing suspiciously at the hallway concerted to it and wondering if maybe someone else was in the building. Why would they only send this guy anyways?

"Now dude, I need you to like, shut up and tell me what the heck's going on with your dumb boss and the building situation?" Satomi demanded. Carsem glanced around the room, looking vaguely and quite ironically, like a trapped mouse as he checked the room to make sure he hadn't seen any mice. It was really sad to watch someone so lanky and tall cower like that. He had seemed like a pompous jerk the night prior, and now he was like some petrified, stereotypical housewife. It was awful.

"Er, well like I said, we moved two days ago, so you guys are idiots for coming here. I was just sent here to get this last box for Marissa, she needs her make up after all," Carsem stated, and Satomi rolled her eyes. Girls and their make-up. She would never understand. "Actually, seeing you here is also going to help knock off the second item of my agenda. The boss wanted me to find you and deliver a message for him, since I told him that you wanted to talk business with him."

"Oh really?" Satomi questioned skeptically, one eyebrow raised.

"Yeah, he told me to tell you that you don't have to come meet him for your business, because he has nothing on his schedule for today, so he was going to come find you. Something about making the rest of the Marketmen get fresh air," Carsem informed her, and Satomi snorted.

"Listen, I'm not doing this around your boss's work schedule. And what the heck's a Market Man?" Satomi demanded, beginning to feel annoyed. The gall of some people!

"Marketmen are people that work for the boss. He likes to call them that since his trade is in the black market and all that stuff," Carsem replied, slipping a smirk on his face, as if that was cool or something. Obviously he had gotten over the mouse stuff. "And if it's just business it can wait."

Satomi stared at Carsem for a moment, her eyes narrowed. What, did he actually think she only wanted to talk to the Sid guy? Satomi shoved her staff into Carsem's face, so that he could get a full view of the shinning weapon.

"Bro, can you see this?" Satomi questioned while Carsem took a step back out of surprise, his green eyes widening beneath the bright pink and orange frame of his glasses. Carsem nodded, a little confused. "What does this look like to you?"

"Uh, a stick?" Carsem wondered, a little nervous about the woman's strange behavior. Satomi was offended by his response.

"It's a staff. Respect the staff dude!" Satomi demanded. "And it's what I'm going to be using to beat your boss when I seem him. This was the business I had with him. I'm going to beat him up until he lets Royce off the hook for his debt, and then make him set Royce's sister, also known as my best friend, free."

"Please, you're a woman, you could never beat the boss in a figh-" Carsem was cut off as Satomi slammed the end of her staff into his stomach, removing the air from his lungs.

"You wanna bet I can't beat Sid?" Satomi dared through gritted teeth, causing Carsem to glare at her.

"Listen up, wench," Carsem began in a low and dangerous voice, and a twisted smile grew on Satomi's face as she decided to hear him out, "Sid is basically in charge of everything on this island. He's basically the strongest fighter around, and a weak girl like you is nothing compared to his awesomeness. Nothing you could do could change that. Not only is he just all together better than you, but he's also got a devil fruit so you don't stand a chan-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Immediately Carsem straightened it up and ran like lightning out the door, faster than Satomi could properly see. She was left standing there awkwardly, her mouth gaping open like a fish out of water and her eyes widened in surprise. She turned around to see a mice nibbling on a banana peel in a corner of the room, and marveled at the wonders of musophobia. She had never seen someone so terrified of something. Satomi sighed and shook her head as she walked to the now open doorway, ignoring the three heads poking in to the room to see what was going on.

"Um, why is the room empty, Cap'n?" Jack wondered curiously, confused as to why the guy from the night before had just come bursting from the door, screaming like a frightened little girl.

"Apparently they've moved their headquarters," Satomi said dryly, the frown on her face evident. She turned to Royce as she fully exited the building and shut the door behind her. "You wouldn't happen to know where they moved, would you? That creep wasn't able to tell me because he has musophobia."

"Musophobia?" Tobi asked.

"Fear of mice," Jack, being the knowing doctor her was, supplied his best friend with an answer. Tobi nodded.

"Um, there are a few buildings I think they could have decided to use, but I'm not positive on a specific one, so we'll have to do some walking, and we'll have to adjust Aki's spot, obviously," Royce stated, an apologetic smile on his face. Satomi nodded.

"Sure thing. Doc, get out the Den Den Mushi so we can tell Aki to get down here and join the rest of us, will ya?" the silver haired captain requested, and the first mate complied. He removed the generic little creature from his pocket and tried to call their green haired archer. Key word: tried.

"Huh, uh, Captain, I think we have another problem," Jack got everyone's attention, and Satomi gave him a look that said she was just daring him to tell her something she definitely wasn't going to like.

"And what might that problem be, dearest Doc?" She asked.

"Aki isn't responding," Jack informed her and the rest of the crew, and Satomi heaved another sigh as she placed her entire right and of her face for a second, as if she were trying to compose herself. After a minute she dropped the hand back down and began to speak.

"Alright, let's just go check out her spot and see if she's there. Who knows, maybe she fell asleep or just wandered off. I bet the child's got ADD, it wouldn't surprise me," Satomi turned to walk towards a building across the street, and the others followed her. She went around to the back of the building and climbed up a ladder leading to the roof of the building. The others climbed up as well, and once everyone reached the top, they were both concerned and surprised with the sight the saw.

"I have a really bad feeling about this," Tobi said as he and the others took in the blood of the roof. No one said anything, and Satomi walked forward to the corner Aki was supposed to be sitting safely in. There was no smiling face or bright green hair, but there was a bow and some arrows strewn about.

"I can't imagine she went without a fight, whatever happened," Royce said solemnly.

"Hey guys, look what I found," Jack said, wavering everyone over from a spot near the ladder. The others complied, and Jack handed a note over to Satomi, who read it out to the rest of her group.

"'Heard you guys had some unofficial business with Sid. You aren't worth his time, but since he's interested, I figured I'd follow you guys around. When I saw this stupid runt head over here, I figured I'd take her to insure that you pathetic wastes of space didn't back out like the cowards you probably are. I didn't want my precious Sid to be disappointed." Satomi finished the note with a frown. "Why does everyone have such low expectations of me?"

"I really don't think that's the problem right now, Captain," Jack said. Satomi shrugged a bit, before glancing back at the blood splattered around them.

"Do you think she lost too much blood, Doc?" Satomi asked, concern lacing her voice. Jack shook his head.

"No, she might be feeling a little woozy right now, but Aki should be fine. She didn't lose too much blood," Jack said, easing his captain's worries with a reassuring smile. Satomi gave a sigh of relief before grabbing Aki's bow and arrows and making her way back to the ladder.

"Well then, we better get moving. Now it's not just Etoile's life at stake here, but Aki's as well. We mustn't fail them now. Royce, we won't be in need of you leading the way. It would probably just be better for us to pick a spot and sit tight so that they won't be wandering around the town at the same time as us," Satomi informed as she began to climb down, her crewmates in close pursuit of their anxious captain.

* * *

The crew ended up just sitting in the harbor where their boat was docked, relaxing in the sunlight. In hindsight, they really shouldn't have been so relaxed, considering their situation and all, but they were. The boys were all sitting down and leaning against the wall of some random building, while Satomi was pacing, lost in deep thought. That was probably why she jumped when she heard a gruff voice from behind her.

"So you're the group of pirates that have a problem with me, are you?" the voice asked, and Satomi spun around, all the boys looking up to see a man dressed in black dress pants and a white dress shirt that could have only been about 5'3 in height. Everyone but Royce stared at him in disbelief.

"Um, are you supposed to be Sid?" Satomi wondered aloud, kinda surprised that this short man was supposed to be involved in the black market. Then again, she had heard stranger things about people with stranger occupations.

"As a matter of fact I am. I suppose that means you're the pirates. I find it strange you can call yourselves a pirate crew when there's so few of you, and you even allow some brat to be a part of it too," Sid responded gruffly, causing Satomi to scowl defensively. Behind Sid Satomi could see a scantily clad woman with a sword sheathed at her hip and blonde hair in a really long ponytail (probably Marissa), who was holding Aki roughly by the arm. Judging by the annoyed look on her face, Aki had probably been trying to talk to her.

Aki really wasn't in too bad of shape, with some cuts, both large and small, across her arms and legs. She still managed her smile, which seemed to brighten when she noticed her bow and arrows placed next to Tobi.

Standing next to Marissa was a man that was easily 6'5, and freakishly muscular looking. Satomi was pretty sure the only thing that could have actually made him look scary was a smart expression on his face, because at that moment he looked really dumb. Behind those people though were probably only actually about six grunt men. Satomi frowned and looked at Royce.

"I thought you said he had a lot of grunts working for him?" Satomi asked. Royce shrugged.

"He probably doesn't think he needs any," Royce said, having stood up along with the other guys.

"I don't need any more Marketmen to deal with the likes of you," Sid stated in a haughty voice. Satomi rolled her eyes and gave him a skeptical look.

"First off, that was a really retarded thing to say," Satomi said to the black market boss before turning to her crew, "In that case, I want both Royce and Tobi on that big scary looking guy that's probably Fortis. As for Jack, I want you to both get Aki free so she can grab her weapons and help out and deal with that slut. Just deal with the grunt if they get in your way, can y'all do that for me?" Satomi requested. Everyone but Tobi agreed.

"Please, I can handle that guy just fine on my own," Tobi tried to argue, and Satomi gave him a glare.

"Whether you can or not, I'm asking you to work with Royce on this one. Just do it and don't argue," Satomi ordered, her expression set with finality. Tobi grudgingly nodded, and they all turned back to Sid and his group of Marketmen.

"What, you're planning on taking me all out on your own, Silver girl?" Sid asked snidely, and Satomi was tempted to gesture rudely at him but she decided against it. She wasn't that angry.

"As a matter of fact, I am," Satomi scowled at him, bringing her staff in front of her body and watching the other man closely as her crewmates moved in closer to their specific targets. Marissa laughed at that.

"HAHAHAHA, you actually think you can beat my darling Sid with that pathetic hunk of metal?" Marissa asked, an overconfident smirk on her face. Satomi rolled her eyes.

"Oh, can it, you slut. This is a perfectly useable staff," Satomi retorted, getting an offended look from Marissa.

"Are you sure about that?" Sid asked, and Satomi snapped her face back to her opponent when she realized he sounded a lot closer than he should have been. She just barely managed to avoid him as he brought his fist forward to where Satomi's face had been. Satomi didn't bother with a counterattack yet, instead choosing to get some distance in between them. He had moved fast. "How useful is it supposed to be against my Iron Iron Fruit?"

Satomi controlled her expression as she watched Sid turn to face her again, and she realized that his hand was no longer made of flesh, but of iron. _'Well okay, looks like I'm gonna have to really rely on my staff today,'_ Satomi thought to herself. She supposed this would have been less of a problem if Sid didn't seem to be so fast, but he was fast, and she was beginning to worry a little. She had a feeling it wouldn't only take a couple of blows from his devil fruit and then there would be some permanent damage on her body. Obviously she was going to have to stay on her toes.

"I'd say just useful enough to help me win," Satomi smack talked, taking her battle stance, right leg in front and left leg in the bag, with her toes pointed just so that they could make a backwards L, and her knees bent. She tightened her grip on her staff. "Which is good, because that's exactly what I plan to do."

At that exact moment, her crew mates sprung forward in sync to attack their opponents.


End file.
